Recycling Jesus, by Peter Abresch
Calvert County author Peter Abresch has a new mystery out just in time to add a touch more intrigue to the election of a new pope.
Recycling Jesus, the author’s 10th novel, is a mystery wrapped in the Church’s most venerated relic, the Shroud of Turin. The crime might have gone undetected had not the Shroud’s guard been killed.
Retired DEA agent Duncan Crouther is recruited to investigate. He is joined by the well-traveled and good-humored priest, Father Kevin O’Byrne. As the crime occurred on Italian soil, the Italian military police, the Carabinieri, are also involved — in the person of Maria Teresa Sconzo, a beautiful, fast-driving and very resourceful agent.
The spiritual and secular intertwine as this trio does some Grecian island-hopping in their quest to answer a very intriguing question. Do the thieves plan to use DNA from the Shroud to recreate Jesus?
The trail leads the three to a Russian billionaire’s private island retreat on the site of an old monastery. Step by step, the vast extent of the billionaire’s egomaniacal plan is revealed. Because, as Abresch writes, “if you clone one, you can clone a bunch …”
Abresch, author of the Elderhostel Mysteries as well as several books on writing, is a skilled narrator. He pulls you in with fast cars, fast boats and a fast-moving plot. Father O’Byrne thickens the plot with apt biblical stories and quotes.
Keep up with the self-published Abresch at www.sidewalkbooks.com.