The Last Gospel

David Gibbins has obviously done massive amounts of research for his new novel The Last Gospel and has used it to produce an intriguing story of a search for a papyrus on which the words of Jesus Christ as dictated to the Roman Emporer Claudius are writen. As in his previous two novels his main characters are archeologist Jack Howard and his friend and technical wizard Costas. The action starts as they dive on a wreck off the coast of Sicily attempting to track the journey of St Paul to Rome. Called to Herculaneum where an earthquake has opened up part of the buried city and provided a unique chance to explore a previously inaccesible villa or it would be if someone was not trying to keep the site closed. Enter the villains and once again it is the Vatican now the organisation of choice for thriller writers since the KGB packed up. Why writers feel that they can portray this collection of elderly priests as a dynamic international power organisation is beyond me. Surely there must be some more convincing power brokers around who could fulfill this role but perhaps it is the powerlessness of the Church compared to other groups that makes them such an easy target. Gibbins plot is backed up by historical facts and sometimes it is difficult for a non-historian to tell where fact ends and fiction starts but it is all very enjoyable nonsense.