The Antioch Testament by Donald Joiner

The Synopsis:

What happened after the most important event in Christian history?
In 2004 an American army patrol rescues a frightened group of Iraqi Christians fleeing Islamic militants. The refugees’ severely wounded leader insists on handing over a mysterious bundle only to the army chaplain. What could this bundle consist of that the dying old man had guarded it with his life?
When the bundle is opened, the chaplain finds that it contains an ancient manuscript written in an unknown language. Fearing for its safety in war-torn Iraq, he manages to have it shipped back to the States and it eventually winds up in an Eastern Orthodox monastery where linguists begin to interpret it.
While the translation is in process, a fanatical group of Iraqi terrorists learns where the manuscript is located and resolves to retrieve it and return it to Iraq.

I received this book from the author for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.

Review:

A suspicious book rescued from Iraq, protected by men to the point that they gladly give their lives for its safety, and now in the hands of Ken, an American who is only doing his wounded brother a favor by having it interpreted.

Historical artifacts clouded with a mysterious story are quick to grab my attention and usually, I am not disappointed. Yet with The Antioch Testament, the story itself did not disappoint, however it was hard to even find the story with so many pages of “facts” included. At one point, I found 10 pages of nothing but history facts and no progression to the story-line at all.

While I do love it when novels include real-life facts in their fictitious stories, The Antioch Testament was just a bit too much “fact” for me to enjoy, and though I could see how these facts pertained to the story, I would have preferred them to not be included so much at one time, or at least not written so much like a school textbook.

So I’m afraid that I will only be rating this book 2 out of 5 stars and would not recommend it unless you prefer books with a lot of information.