At the crossroads of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish faiths, an ancient artifact is stolen from a long-hidden vault located directly beneath Jerusalem's Temple Mount . . .
So begins The Sacred Bones by Michael Byrnes, a page-turning novel from a new voice on the thriller scene. With the violent theft leaving thirteen Israeli soldiers and policemen dead, and the Palestinians up in arms over the desecration of sacred grounds, the tension between the two groups is dangerously high. Jerusalem is a stick of dynamite and the fuse has been lit. . . .
Across the Mediterranean in Italy, American forensic scientist Charlotte Hennesey has been hired by the Vatican to examine the contents of a newly discovered archeological treasure: a two-thousand-year-old ossuary containing the bones of an unidentified, crucified man—the first complete skeleton of a crucifixion victim ever found. Together with Italian anthropologist Giovanni Bersei, Charlotte makes startling forensic and genetic discoveries that lead her to wonder—could these be the bones of Jesus Christ?
With the situation in Jerusalem veering out of control and the malevolent eye of Vatican security expert Salvatore Conte watching her every step, Charlotte puts two and two together. She knows that if the mortal remains of Christ are indeed in the burial box, the implications—for history and science, for religion and the Church—are frighteningly vast. And even more immediate is the question of whether the Vatican will allow the information—and Charlotte—to see the light of day.
Fast-paced and intelligent, blending historical fact with persuasive fiction, The Sacred Bones reads like a CSI episode penned by The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown. From a conspiracy stretching back to the days of the Templar Knights to the shifting alliances of contemporary Middle Eastern politics, The Sacred Bones is an addictively compelling thriller that calls into question many of modern religion's deepest-held beliefs about Judaism, Jesus Christ and early Christianity, and Islam . . . with stunning results.

The Sacred Bones: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Byrnes, Michael

United States

William Morrow

The Sacred Bones

A brazen and violent crime occurs at the crossroads of the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish faiths—the shocking theft of ancient artifacts hidden for many centuries in a secret vault beneath Jerusalem's Temple Mount. In its wake, thirteen Israeli policemen and soldiers are dead—and the fuse is lit on a volatile Mideast powder keg, threatening an explosion that could devastate the world.
In Italy, American forensic scientist Charlotte Hennesey has answered a Vatican summons asking for help. Joining with Italian anthropologist Giovanni Bersei, she embarks upon a perilous journey down a twisted path of revelations prowled by sinister zealots and relentless cold killers. For they must expose the astonishing secrets locked in the ancient bones resting in a newly unearthed burial box—the skeleton of a man who lived and died in the first century; a man who was scourged and stabbed . . . and crucified.

William Morrow Paperbacks

When an American geneticist is miraculously healed from cancer by bones she believes to be the remains of Jesus, an Israeli archaeologist and a noted Egyptologist team up to outmaneuver the Vatican, who would prevent the geneticist's findings from becoming public, and a dangerous adversary who would use the bones to trigger Armageddon. By the author of The Sacred Bones.

The Sacred Blood: A Novel

In the Holy Land, a group of archaeologists uncover some unusual markings and an old clay jar containing an ancient scroll. Meanwhile, a ruthless sect called The Sons of Light need the DNA from a human skeleton, 2000 years old. They discover that an American scientist shares this DNA and prepare to kidnap her.

Sacred Blood Intl, The

William Morrow & Co.

The riveting sequel to the international bestseller The Sacred Bones, Michael Byrnes’s The Sacred Blood is a provocative, heart-racing thriller in the Dan Brown mode while adding a bold new twist to the genre. A heart-stopping story that blends archeology, history, science, and religion, The Sacred Blood concerns a race to possess the world’s most powerful relic as the clock ticks down to Armageddon. Action-packed and full of surprises, here is high-octane entertainment for lovers of The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, and the New York Times bestselling Sigma Force novels of James Rollins.

The Sacred Blood

Harper

Hands & Brains Unbound: The Failure of Nation-Building & the Illusion of World Order

Business & Money

International

Blurb

Relentlessly suspenseful and disturbingly timely, Bounty summons a chilling vision of our Internet culture gone mad, where freedom, privacy, and the rule of law are demolished by a crisis of nightmare proportions—and the future of justice lies in the hands not of the bravest but the most brutal. When a notorious Wall Street vulture is executed in his high-rise office by a sniper’s bullet, it’s the kill shot heard around the world. Welcome to Bounty4Justice.com, a rogue website for vigilante assassins, where outraged citizens bid up bounties on corporate crooks and corrupt elites. As the number of targets soars, amateur bounty hunters and professional hit men compete to exterminate the condemned, “proof-of-death” videos become Internet sensations, and the self-styled Robin Hood pulling the strings threatens to plunge the international community into anarchy. Along with other law enforcement agencies across the globe, the FBI and its agents on the case—led by Roman Novak and Rosemary Michaels—are desperately seeking a way to outmaneuver and overpower an all-but-invisible adversary with millions of dollars at its disposal and the ability to cripple the most sophisticated attackers with a keystroke. Following a black-hat hacker extraordinaire down a rabbit hole of firewalls, encryption, and unbreakable codes leads Novak and Michaels into the virtual underworld of the darknet—a seemingly impenetrable haven for the illicit and illegal where Bounty4Justice’s mastermind is almost certainly hiding. But just when the agents think they are close to breaching their quarry’s digital fortress, they find themselves stalked by an army of cyber outlaws out for blood. Advance praise for Bounty “[Michael] Byrnes fuses science fiction and espionage in this smart, near-futuristic dystopic thriller. . . . The action-packed story line is full of plot twists and explores such topical matters as cyberterrorism and hacktivism. Byrnes raises some serious questions about humankind’s increasing dependence on—and assimilation with—the digital world.”—Publishers Weekly “Vigilantism goes viral in this thriller about a website that pays bounties for the killing of unpunished child abusers, financial scammers, human rights violators, and other bad actors. . . . Charles Bronson’s Death Wish meets the Internet.”—Kirkus Reviews “This is a grand-scale spin on the vigilante story. . . . Byrnes’s vigilante offers a twist on the theme: he’s mastered cyberspace to the point where he can outsource some of his to-do list, offering a cash reward on his website to anyone who will kill the crooked banker . . . and the weasel who bilked Medicare for $127 million. And he’s just getting started.”—Booklist

Bounty: A Novel

Ballantine Books

In 1776, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations provided the world a peaceful and prosperous way to ensure social order: he called it a "commercial society". But the human endeavor has evolved a great deal since then. Economically, and even socially, the world seems to have lost its way. This book, "Wealth Beyond Nations", provides a new path for the 21st century to ensure social order and economic prosperity for all: we call it "global interdependence".

Wealth Beyond Nations [Abridged Edition]

Halm, Tamara van

The Sacred Bones: The page-turning thriller for fans of Dan Brown

Contemporary

Simon Schuster(uk)

At the dawn of civilization ...An exotic stranger appears in a Mesopotamian village and is venerated as a goddess ...until she unleashes a horror beyond anything humankind has ever known. At the sunset of civilization ...A mercenary unit in northern Iraq, led by Sergeant Jason Yaeger, has trapped radical Islam`s most wanted target in a mysterious cave that sits at the heart of the Genesis story. When a Marine platoon seeks to control the extraction mission, a threat far more ominous is found lurking beneath the mountains. Meanwhile in Boston, Massachusetts, Agent Thomas Flaherty helps archaeologist Brooke Thompson escape assassination by a Las Vegas televangelist intent on using the cave`s deepest secret to bring the Middle East to its knees.

The Genesis Plague: An Ancient Myth, A Deadly Curse, a perfect thriller for fans of Dan Brown

Genre Fiction

Pocket_Books

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Books by Byrnes, Michael