- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Canada (Jun 30 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0143167871
- ISBN-13: 978-0143167877
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.4 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #208,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
Michael Slade launches an intriguing new character,Wyatt Rook, in this thriller featuring a 2000-year-old religious mystery, a downed World War II bomber, and a Nazi traitor. Rook, a lawyer with a Ph.D. in military history, works to uncover the fate of a pilot who disappeared while on a special mission for Winston Churchill. The grisly trail leads to a fanatical religious cult determined to protect the secret of Judas, Jesus' betrayer- a secret that could undermine the very foundation of the Roman Catholic Church.
About the Author
Michael Slade is the pseudonym for Jay Clarke, a Vancouver-based trial lawyer specializing in cases for the criminally insane.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Locked Room Mystery,
By Robert Bottos "Rebel Rob aka Avid Fan" (Coquitlam, British Columbia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Crucified (Paperback)
Normally I run right out and buy each Slade novel as it comes off the presses and get it signed by the author. This is the first time I haven't done that. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the novel but I guess I was so looking forward to another Special X story that perhaps I felt a little cheated. Still, Slade has shown that he can write a thrilling mystery chock full of interesting historical tidbits whether Inspector DeClerc or Wyatt Rook is his protagonist. I do agree that in part the book felt like a clone of the Davinci code but it had a definite Slade twist and imagery to it. I suspect this isn't the last we've heard of Wyatt Rook and who knows, maybe his path will cross that of Special X in the near future. I was a bit dissapointed with the books ending but in did make sense. Without giving anything away, if you've seen Ronin or Perhaps Pulp Fiction you'll understand.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Flight of faith,
By Bawlmer Guy (Mount Airy, MD, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Crucified (Paperback)
For many years after my introduction to Michael Slade during the mid-80s, it was tempting to compare successive Special X novels to Slade's first two, Headhunter and Ghoul. This made for a somewhat unsatisfying progression despite some excellent stories. The antidote was to appreciate the merits of each novel on its own. Eventually it became clear that Slade has little interest in being nailed down to any formula, genre, or subject matter, except perhaps for his love of mystery, history, and inventive mayhem. Even so prepared, I was stunned to learn that Slade has offered in his thirteenth novel a thrilling departure from the Special X series.Crucified is sweet torture for the reader who seeks an answer to the still-hanging "who lives, who dies" question at the end of Kamikaze, the previous Slade novel. It's also a superb example of Slade's ability to link seemingly disparate elements--to reveal what they are would spoil the fun, but they exceed the jaw-dropping connections (among Chinese pharmaceuticals, General Custer, and the legendary Sasquatch) found in Slade's novel Cutthroat. Yet the connections are quite logical; Slade has simply looked deeply enough into history to find them. On top of it all, Crucified entails some interesting twists on the locked-room puzzle found in some Golden Age mysteries. Wyatt Rook, an author who specializes in Second World War plots, probes the crash site of a British bomber downed over Germany in 1944. As he tries to learn the fates of missing airmen, Rook runs afoul of murderous conspirators who are determined to acquire religious artifacts on behalf of the Vatican. Crucified includes some fine, realistic exposition of Royal Air Force bomber crews' daily routines. The passages seem to stem from first-hand interviews. If so, it's commendable that Slade has saluted war heroes from another era before they pass on. Tight, smooth, and engrossing throughout, Crucified is the work of a novelist moving onward and upward. Even far from the familiar ground of Special X, Slade flies high, straight, and true. It's a most welcome adventure.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too Much Backstory Slowed the Pace,
By
This review is from: Crucified (Paperback)
Lawyer, historian, and amateur sleuth, Wyatt Rook, has been hired by Liz Hannah to investigate the disappearance of her grandfather after his plane was shot down during a mission in WWII. Liz tells Wyatt enough to peak his interest, but his attraction to her is what sends him to Germany to investigate. But a modern Crusader is determined to stop Wyatt from learning the truth about the real purpose of that mission. As the reader is taken through different time periods including the crucifixion of Christ, WWII missions, and modern Germany, we slowly learn the connection between the religious and war scenes and Wyatt's search.Crucified is described as a fusion of police procedural, whodunit, suspense, horror, historical, war, and legal thriller. The description is right, but it also identifies part the problem. There's so much going on in this book, so many long descriptions, so much jumping back and forth from topic to topic and time periods that it disrupted the story's flow. A lot of information was presented almost in essay form as POV switched between characters to omniscient in some places. I don't know much about religious history or World War II, so the information was interesting, but it really was too much of a good thing. For example, in the last third of the book, two pages of backstory were inserted into a chase scene. My editor would never let me get away with that. Still, I learned a lot, was entertained for the most part, and the ending was satisfying.
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