Like the biggest best seller of the past three years (“The Da Vinci Code,” for those who have been on an island), “Resurrection,” by Tucker Malarkey, is based on controversial religious items and history. Unlike “The Da Vinci Code,” Malarkey’s novel has more grounding in fact and, also unlike that novel, is not likely to start a firestorm over the veracity or irreverence of its subject.
Beginning in Cairo, soon after the end of WWII, Malarkey’s religious thriller starts with the discovery of the Gnostic Gospels in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. For those unfamiliar with it, the Gnostic Bible purports to be the lost section of the original scriptures that eventually became what many know as the definitive version of the Christian (and by relation, Hebrew) Bible.
A couple of years after the discovery, nurse Gemma Basian is visited by a mysterious stranger looking for packages her father might’ve sent. She tells him she never received any. Two days later, news of her father’s death arrives. Gemma heads to Cairo to bury his ashes. She also wants to learn of her father’s last days and his work with his former colleague, Professor David Lezar – and falls for his handsome sons.
Although Lezar and others try to dissuade her, Gemma eventually learns that her father’s last project involved finding the remaining “lost gospel” written by Mary Magdalene, who had a much more complicated relationship with Jesus than the Church – Catholic, Protestant and otherwise – would have us believe.
What’s more, Magdalene witnessed the resurrection and wrote about it. And with the other revelations inside the Gnostic scriptures – salvation without the guidance of organized religion; a healthy attitude about sex, etc. – the formula for cover-up is all but pre-ordained. Naturally, the powers that be want this information buried forever – at all costs.
Malarkey displays some admirable writing and plotting skills – the notion for this novel came to her after reading Elaine Pagel’s “The Gnostic Gospels” – and the story moves along at a nice clip.
But a few anachronisms and some out-of-place romance writing soften what should be a razor-edged thriller.
Dorman T. Shindler is a freelancer from Missouri.
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Resurrection
By Tucker Malarkey
Riverhead, 352 pages, $24.95
