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The Book of Lies

Brad Meltzer
Grand Central Publishing (2008)
ISBN 9780446577885
Reviewed by Narayan Radhakrishnan for RebeccasReads (10/08)

What do the Bible and Superman have in common? Well, before you rake your minds to list the highly improbable and farfetched common grounds, please read “The Book of Lies.”  I have long been a fan of legal thrillers written by this author, but of late I find that Mr. Meltzer is carving a neat niche in the biblical-historical mystery genre, a territory of which Dan Brown (seems) to be the undisputed Emperor. A couple of years back Meltzer enthralled us with “The Book of Fate,” and no, “Book of Lies” is not a sequel of any sort, save for the fact that both are mysteries laced with a flavour of history.

The first murder recorded in biblical history is that of Abel by his brother Cain. But what happened to the weapon that was used for the murder? History proclaims it lost, but was it? The novel starts with the story of Cal Harper. As a boy he had a difficult childhood (the details of which, my friend, you have to find out by reading the book), and on one fine day, he comes across his father in somewhat dubious circumstances. Lloyd, his father, seems to have a story to tell. Lloyd tells a story of…. well…“biblical proportions,” both literarily and figuratively. It seems that the murder weapon had reached the hands of one Mitchell Siegel. Siegel was murdered by a gunshot in 1932. Even his son, Jerry, thought it to be a robbery related murder. But the murder provoked Jerry to think, what if there existed a man on whom bullets would do no harm; a man with the strength of a train; a man with laser vision; a man who could fly…up…up…. and away…. Thus was born Superman. And do you know what the first Superman adventure was?  It was of him preventing a robbery by gun wielding hoodlums.
           
But unknown to Jerry Siegel, it seems Mitchell was in possession of the world’s first murder weapon. And the deeper Cal and Lloyd Harper investigate, battling a host of evil men (and women), the closer they come to the truth behind a mystery that’s just going to rock the world.
           
What follows is pulsating action at its best. I was glued to the pages…. and one thing I can say, I am will treat my collection of Superman comics with newfound respect. A highly, highly recommended read.

    

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