Jesus Christ's mortal remains turned up in a secret crypt below Jerusalem's Temple Mount in Byrnes's 2007 debut, The Sacred Bones. Now DNA extracted from those remains cures geneticist Charlotte Hennessy of cancer in this equally outlandish sequel. Assassins track Hennessy to Phoenix, Ariz., where they kill her boss and significant other, Evan Aldrich. Hennessy and her ally, Fr. Patrick Donovan, struggle to survive as they attempt to foil the schemes of a motley assortment of villains in search of the now missing Jesus relics, notably American-born Rabbi Aaron Cohen. Another duo, Israeli archeologist Amit Mizrachi and his romantic interest, Egyptologist Julie LeRoux, also attract Cohen's unwelcome attention. A formulaic plot, which includes abduction and the threat of sexual violence, builds to a denouement that will be familiar to viewers of the first Indiana Jones movie. (Apr.)
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Randolph, editor of two anthologies by Nebraska authors, here brings the Sandhills of western Nebraska vividly to life, as experienced by one plucky young woman. Recently married Mary Needham loses a leg in the tragic auto accident that kills her husband. She had been like one of the ranch hands as a girl, and then on her in-laws’ ranch, but now she is lost. Convinced she has nowhere else to turn, she makes a hasty and regrettable decision to marry Ward Hamilton, the conservative preacher who comes calling. She soon realizes her role is merely that of “the church’s servant.” She nearly leaves, but at age 33 and with four children, she stays. She does get a job at a nursing home and, with help from her grandparents, an RN degree, while Ward becomes more and more obsessed with his church, seeing his life as a battle between good and evil. Randolph’s debut novel becomes a page-turner as the reader pulls for Mary to regain her self-esteem and ultimately return to the land she loves. --Deborah Donovan
