Contact: Steve Munson, Author, The Treasure of Israel, 516-508-2500
MEDIA ADVISORY, Oct. 21 /Christian Newswire/ -- The great Jewish rising of AD 66 gave Jewish extremists control over virtually all of Judea and the city of Jerusalem. Sensing that the extremists could become enemies of the empire, Rome, in its customary response to threats, laid siege to Jerusalem, looting and destroying the ancient city in AD 70. This is where S.J. Munson's fascinating novel, The Treasure of Israel, begins. From there, it leaps over centuries to give us the book's flashforward/flashback format. It also gives us the principal character, a retired art historian named Michael Grammaticus, descended himself from a line of academics. Grammaticus' parents have died in an automobile accident. As the days pass, the possibility arises that the accident might have been murder. This knowledge takes Grammaticus into Europe in his search for the truth.
Like Eric Ambler's innocent Englishmen, Grammaticus enters an atmosphere in Europe that seems as sinister as the actual events. The choked, ancient cities that lie between Notre Dame and Istanbul's Sophia are places created in the grim collision of empires. Their idea of truth and justice and the completion of moral tasks isn't quite the same as Grammaticus', so that he finds it nearly impossible to get helpful answers in his search.
He also becomes entangled in his family's association down through the centuries with the biggest heist of all: the looting of Herod's treasure from the Temple before the building was destroyed in AD 70. The fact that Herod's treasure is Hitchcock's classic maguffin, designed to move the action along before it fades away, shouldn't detract from its power. Individuals have killed and been killed for the treasure, so it seems real enough. But is it? This is a question the author answers, along with many others, before the novel ends.
Not since the early works of Morris West has a novel more accurately described the interplay of tensions between the religious world and Western society. And Munson does this with a deft hand, a masterly understanding of his subject and a sly sense of humor that keeps the reader guessing -- and reading. --Review by Ralph J. Smith
For More Information About this book visit www.revivalnationpublishing.com or www.treasureofisrael.com.
