THE VATICAN CHRONICLES SERIES: The Mystery of Julia Episcopa; The Anonymous Scribe; Silent Mistresses

THE MYSTERY OF JULIA EPISCOPA (The Vatican Chronicles #1)
JOHN I. RIGOLI & DIANE CUMMINGS
Kindle edition (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$5.99 available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In ancient Rome, a woman flees for her life. Her enemies are those she once called 'brother'.

Hidden beneath her blue cloak are secrets men will kill for—forgeries that prove the newly self-appointed bishops are not followers of the way, but pretenders who have seized power and will stop at nothing to shape this new religion to their own ends. Now, Julia—a woman who had once walked with Mary Magdalene and taught alongside Paul must preserve the legacy of the apostles in the face of terrifying danger.

Two thousand years later, classical archaeologists Valentina Vella and Erika Simone are tasked with advising the newly-elected Pope on the historical legacy of women in the early Christian period.

The women stumble across an ancient parchment buried deep in the Vatican archives, a document that has clearly been altered. They find themselves on the trail of a woman who may have been the first woman Bishop in the Catholic faith. To reveal Julia's legacy will put them in the cross-hairs of a venomous Vatican battle for power and supremacy; to stay silent would make them complicit in an ancient heresy and would betray the teachings that Julia sacrificed her life to defend.

The Mystery of Julia Episcopa weaves seamlessly between modern day Rome and the politics of the Catholic church, and the times and life of a 1st century Roman noblewoman who rose to be a dominant force in the early Christian movement.

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My Review: I wonder if I'll ever get tired of Vatican-skulduggery stories. I hope not. Archaeology plus ancient history equaling a black eye for one of the greatest forces for evil ever devised by man...christianity as a whole is what I mean...in a present hag-ridden by its rotting zombie corpse never palls.

Two modern archaeologists, Erika and Valentina, discover suppressed evidence of a woman bishop's existence in early christian days. Setting out to discover what they can about her is obviously going to be fraught...the catholic church is hostile to the merest whisper of women in positions of power, triply so in its own hierarchy...and more dangerous than even that baseline because their funding comes from a mustachio-twirling baddie in the form of Cardinal Ricci, a Central Casting Villain of the most amusingly OTT sort.

The generally christian-positive message of Julia Lucinia Aquiliana coming to be Julia Episcopa is tied up with the most famous moment in Roman history: Vesuvius erupting and burying Pompeii in 79CE. It acts as the major, defining moment of the past timeline in the novel, and in the present as the moment these two woman archaeologists understand what they have on their hands: The literal smoking...gun, you should forgive, in the quest to prove women have been calculatedly written out of church history.

This being my own assumption about history more broadly, I'm all invested and on board.

Still and all, this is a literary pleasure for me, and its positive religious overtones put me off.

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THE ANONYMOUS SCRIBE (The Vatican Chronicles #2)
JOHN I. RIGOLI & DIANE CUMMINGS
Kindle edition (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$5.99, available now

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: When the lie is two thousand years old, who, exactly, will the truth set free?

While analyzing parchment fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, grad student Susan Bauer pieces together text that indicates the existence of a stolen Secret Temple Scroll that was penned decades before the gospels. If discovered, this document could free the Jewish people from the centuries’-long blemish that they are responsible for Yeshua’s death.

It could also turn Christianity on its head.

From the basement of the Israeli Museum to a basilica in a picturesque French village to the ruins of Herculaneum, ex-Mossad Yigael Dorian and blacklisted archaeologists Valentina Vella and Erika Simone journey on a transcontinental chase, dodging thieves, kidnappers, cardinals, and enlisting mobsters to uncover the truth behind this rumored scroll.

It is the writer of this document, however, who has the final word in a mesmerizing depiction of life in the Galilee alongside Yeshua.

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My Review: I got a lot less invested in the Intrepid Sleuths' archaeological skulduggery when we moved into territory that presumes the figure at the center of the lunatic belief system we call christianity was a living breathing human being.

There exists no shred of evidence of this. Inventing one for this story was a step past my personal suspension-of-disbelief line.

It is a testament to the writing chops of the authorial duo that I was compelled to keep reading, and that I give this story three whole stars. I am mightily opposed to everything this entry in the series is presenting, and irked by the certainty that some will think it's probable it represents some kind of truth. No matter; honesty insists that I rate it on its storytelling merits. Three stars.

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SILENT MISTRESSES (The Vatican Chronicles #3)
JOHN I. RIGOLI & DIANE CUMMINGS with Lisa Cerasoli
Kindle edition (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$5.99, available now

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: A Vatican Bank cover-up. A devout whistleblower. A Church with everything to lose.

Sister Maria Caruso was sent to the Vatican Bank to modernize its systems—not to unearth secrets worth killing for. But when a €30 million discrepancy leads her to a web of hidden accounts, she stumbles onto something far more dangerous than embezzlement.

The money was only the surface. What it concealed runs far deeper. For decades, powerful men within the Church have used secret funds to protect private sins—names that must never be named, affairs that break more than vows—a history the Vatican is willing to bury—along with anyone who gets too close.

As Maria begins to pull on the thread, she becomes a target. Trapped inside the very institution she once trusted, her only weapon is the technology the Church has long dismissed. Her only choice? Stay silent and survive—or expose the truth and risk everything.

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My Review: Okay. We're switching gears. No more archaeology, now we're in computer forensics and accountancy.

I quit caring. The Banco Ambrosiano scandal took place in my adulthood and, as I thought then, represented an iceberg's tip of the real story.

While nice enough to read as a mystery, the topic was not what I expected it to be or wanted to read about. The authors, as assisted, turned out a run-of-the-mill crime story with stakes I just could not invest in. Three stars for competency. None for my personal enjoyment.

AND MANKIND CREATED THE GODS, graphic storytelling in a very very important cause

AND MANKIND CREATED THE GODS: A Graphic Novel Adaptation of Pascal Boyer’s Religion Explained
JOSEPH BÉHÉ (tr. Edward Gauvin)
Graphic Mundi
$39.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: These are some of the most fundamental and enduring questions we have about the mysteries of religion, and they may well hold the key to humankind’s future on this earth.

In this adaptation of Pascal Boyer’s classic work exploring these concepts, Religion Explained, artist Joseph Béhé harnesses the power of comics to provide clear answers to the basic questions about why religion exists and why people believe.

A distinguished scholar, Boyer drew from research in cognitive science, anthropology, psychology, and evolutionary biology to explore why religion exists and why the strength of human beliefs can drive us to be selfless sometimes and, at other times, to be fanatical and intolerant. His erudite book is rich with insight into the endless jumble of ideas that inform religious beliefs and practices across cultures. With detailed, illustrative drawings and carefully adapted prose, Béhé’s graphic novel brings a new perspective to Boyer’s work.

An eminently accessible approach to the notoriously thorny topics of belief, cognition, humanity, and religion, And Mankind Created the Gods is a thoughtful, inspiring graphic novel that will further and broaden the conversation with which Boyer’s book engages.

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My Review: I feel very sad about this book. It needs explaining all the way from the subtitle, on to the purpose of the project. Plus this is a disaster of time to present something that is not a rah-rah Rasputin-style cheerleadin' on the subject of religion. Even if you've never heard of Religion Explained, you who are not first-timers to my reviews know that there is no way at all (no way in Hell!) I'd review something pro-religion even to dunk on it. Then we come to its length...over 350 pages...and its price...forty dollars. I do not foresee this wonderful, trenchant, tendentious read burning up the sales charts.

Damned shame, that. Look at this stareable art:

I'll happily do my bit here, trying for some interested sympathetic eyeblinks from among my smarter-than-average readers. Y'all give me hope, the numbers who come here to read about worthy, important books about subjects most polite people bury in order not to risk offending some ignorant little twidgee with a keyboard and a grudge against smart people.

So, Religion Explained: its subtitle is "The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought", and that is what it explores. Unlike the idea you'd get from my fondness for the book, it is not a screed against religion. It is a scholarly examination of Belief, as a phenomenon, not as a disorder. (I'm sure someone religious has used its facts to argue that it proves y'all's gawd designed Belief into humanity.) Like all things touching the cultural third rail that is Belief, this book has attracted both support and anger, as its surprisingly unpolemical Wikipedia page shows. It has existed this entire century. It is still in print via Basic Books. I myownself recommend you read it.

Why you should read *this* book, this sequential-art story about its concepts, comes down to the reasons anyone should read a story when seeking knowledge: A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, to quote the Sherman Brothers. I'm so old that I remember hearing Julie Andrews sing it to me in a dark, enormous theater.

So please take this in. Despite swimming against the prevailing social current, despite having one of the most unpleasantly good-for-you subtitles in all of history, despite being in a medium I am not fond of, this story about a book I read almost a quarter-century ago told me something new about Belief. It did it without taking my side. It is a very clear-eyed evocation in story form of the source material's information.

And I still gave it five stars.

BRIGHT OBJECTS, shiny start to a promising new career

BRIGHT OBJECTS
RUBY TODD
Simon & Schuster
$28.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: A young widow grapples with the arrival of a once-in-a-lifetime comet and its tumultuous consequences, in a debut novel that blends mystery, astronomy, and romance, perfect for fans of Emma Cline’s The Girls and Ottessa Moshfegh’s Death in Her Hands.

Sylvia Knight is losing hope that the person who killed her husband will ever face justice. Since the night of the hit-and-run, her world has been shrouded in hazy darkness—until she meets Theo St. John, the discoverer of a rare comet soon to be visible to the naked eye.

As the comet begins to brighten, Sylvia wonders what the apparition might signify. She is soon drawn into the orbit of local mystic Joseph Evans, who believes the comet’s arrival is nothing short of a divine message. Finding herself caught between two conflicting perspectives of this celestial phenomenon, she struggles to define for herself where the reality lies. As the comet grows in the sky, her town slowly descends further and further into a fervor over its impending apex, and Sylvia’s quest to uncover her husband’s killer will push her and those around her to the furthest reaches of their very lives.

A novel about the search for meaning in a bewildering world, the loyalty of love, and the dangerous lengths people go to in pursuit of obsession, Bright Objects is a luminous, masterfully crafted literary thriller.

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My Review: A debut novel from a very accomplished author, one whose best gift is the deft touch of characterization. I felt very connected to Sylvia from the get-go, her fuddled and bewildered survivor's guilt, her unostentatious revenge-seeking against the one responsible for her loss, and her deep but unwilling fascination with a charismatic local cult leader.

The lovely patterns Author Todd weaves among these strands, spinning her threads from the ever-renewed internal structures of loss, guilt, sadness, and outrage, don't sag or drop. They're sometimes not as harmoniously tinted as a veteran writer might choose...the mother-in-law in particular is rather paler than I'd expected, Theo the astronomer a bit too intense...but these are quibbles. Not a line out of place, not a word (even when a not-American word crops up) wasted or obscured.

The lack of a full fifth star on my rating isn't because of some sense of disappointment. I got what I wanted. The plot...revenge-driven widow struggles to cope with her loss and her survivor guilt will catch me in its web every time...is consistent, is finished with an appropriate, yet unexpected, ending. What bothered me, and this is really a very *me* thing to be tangled up in, was the comet. A comet, one on a path to get this close to Earth, is not going to go undetected for very long. We're motivated, since Shoemaker-Levy 9 smacked Jupiter so very hard in 1994, to go looking for these kinds of objects.

Okay, so that's a half-star lost. A tiny smidgeon of the tarnish on my shiny loving cup of pleasure also traces to Theo and his own warping loss. It's a trope I find painfully Writerly, is the Conjunction of Damaged Souls. Theo's issues were understandably similar to Sylvia's; his response to her darkness was believable. His discovery of her, in Australia, where he happens to be for the confirmation of a career-defining discovery, is what rings false to me. As always I want this kind of other-directed man to exist; I suspect he isn't to be found in a man about to ascend to the heights of his ambitions. I also see the facile characterization of Joseph Evans, and honestly, since he's such a bell-end of a grifter, I just don't care.

Quibbles and crotchets aside, everything Author Todd does in this story fits. The mystery plot, the way it's rooted in the ugliness of revenge, the focus of the two leads on their personal quests, all works as a whole. The manner in which the ending's made manifest felt satisfying to me. I'm struggling with myself not to spoiler it (though I really want to!) because experiencing the event blind is a pleasure enhancer.

Tyro author does a fine job, will most likely do better next time, and very much deserves your treasure and time.

THE DEVIL'S ATLAS: An Explorer's Guide to Heavens, Hells and Afterworlds, gorgeous item for the seeker who loves art, maps, mythology

THE DEVIL'S ATLAS: An Explorer's Guide to Heavens, Hells and Afterworlds
EDWARD BROOKE-HITCHING
Chronicle Books
$29.95 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Packed with strange stories and spectacular illustrations, The Devil's Atlas leads you on an adventure through the afterlife, exploring the supernatural worlds of global cultures to form a fascinating traveler's guide quite unlike any other.

From the author of the critically acclaimed bestsellers The Phantom Atlas, The Sky Atlas, and The Madman's Library comes a unique and beautifully illustrated guide to the heavens, hells, and lands of the dead as imagined throughout history by cultures and religions around the world. Packed with colorful maps, paintings, and captivating stories, The Devil's Atlas is a compelling tour of the geography, history, and supernatural populations of the afterworlds of cultures around the globe. Whether it's the thirteen heavens of the Aztecs, the Chinese Taoist netherworld of "hungry ghosts," Islamic depictions of Paradise, or the mysteries of the Viking mirror world, each is conjured through astonishing images and a highly readable trove of surprising facts and narratives, stories of places you'd hope to go, and those you definitely would not. A traveler's guide to worlds unseen, here is a fascinating visual chronicle of our hopes, fears, and fantasies of what lies beyond.

DISCOVER THE BEYOND: From the depths of underworlds to the heights of heavens and everywhere else a life after death may be spent, this atlas explores the geography, history, and supernatural populations of the afterworlds of global mythologies.

A GLOBAL SURVEY: From the demon parliament of the ancient Maya, to the eternal globe-spanning quest to find the Earthly Paradise, to the "Hell of the Flaming Rooster" of Japanese Buddhist mythology (in which sinners are tormented by an enormous fire-breathing cockerel), The Devil's Atlas gathers together a wonderful variety of beliefs and representations of life after death.

UNUSUAL AND UNSEEN: These afterworlds are illustrated with an unprecedented collection of images. They range from the marvelous "infernal cartography" of the European Renaissance artists attempting to map the structured Hell described by Dante and the decorative Islamic depictions of Paradise to the various efforts to map the Garden of Eden and the spiritual vision paintings of nineteenth-century mediums.

EXPERT AUTHOR: Edward Brooke-Hitching is a master of taking visually–driven deep dives into unusual historical subjects, such as the maps of imaginary geography in The Phantom Atlas, ancient pathways through the stars in The Sky Atlas, and the literary oddities lining the metaphorical shelves of The Madman's Library.

Perfect for:

Obscure history and mythology enthusiasts Anyone with an interest in the occult

Spiritual curiosity seekers

Map lovers

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My Review: A browser's bonanza of images, facts, and ideas about what happens After. There's a lot of art devoted to this subject, pro and con, over the course of the centuries humanity's hhad enough food to enable people to sit around and think about Death instead of just living with death at every corner, on ecery bend of the road.

There are lots of wheels in the concept of the Afterlife. The Wheel of the Seasons, the sky's great, unending, repetitive turning (which was much more obvious in the time before light pollution ended the sky's dominance of nighttime) seems to have made us into the cycle-spotters that we are. Reincarnation, endlessly cycling through lives on Earth, flowed from this. So did the idea of the duality of Heaven and Hell, the top and bottom of the Wheel's spin.

The artwork, as you see, is gorgeous; the text, which you can't read, is fascinating, and shows the author's easy command of the topic at hand. Nothing in here will make you an expert. If, however, you're curious about how the ancient humans came to think what we now accept as pretty ordinary thoughts about the Afterlife, there is a lot of material in here to point you at areas of further study.

You knew I'd get to ancient Egypt, right? Me, who uses ma'at in all my death-related reviews?

Have a Bosch, just for fun! This guy had a very, very clear vision of what he thought Hell was going to be. Lots of butts in Bosch's hell. The author doesn't go into (!) that. The focus is not solely on Western ideas of Afterlife, lest I have misled you...

...all cultures that have thought about this and left visual representations of it are at least touched on. The author knows his audience. The curious, the art-eyed, the seekers after the paths our ancestors walked...all are doing to find reasons to enjoy this gorgeous gift.

Well worth your effort to source via the publisher's website linked above.