The Righteous Men
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The Number One bestseller. A religious conspiracy thriller like no other. The end of the world is coming – one body at a time…
Two murders at opposite ends of America, one in the backstreets of New York City, the other in the backwoods of Montana. A series of killings in every corner of the globe, from the crowded slums of India to the pristine beaches of Cape Town. There can't possibly be a connection.
That's the instinct of Will Monroe, a young, British-born reporter for The New York Times – until the morning his beautiful wife Beth is kidnapped. Holding her are men who seem ready to kill without hesitation.
Desperate, Will follows a trail that leads to a mysterious sect right on his own doorstep – fervent followers of one of mankind's oldest faiths. He will have to break through multiple layers of mysticism and ancient prophecy, unearthing riddles buried deep in the Bible – until he finds the secret that is said to have animated the world for thousands of years, a secret on which the fate of humanity may depend. But with more murders by the hour, and each clue wrapped in layers of code, time is running out…
Reviews
‘The best thriller I’ve read in years.’ Piers Morgan
‘The biggest challenger to Dan Brown’s crown … a highly charged, theologically accurate tale’ Mirror
‘Compulsive reading … successfully blends ancient teachings with the highly charged ways of the 21st century … bears all the hallmarks of a blockbuster’ Daily Express
'More readable than The Da Vinci Code – the sense of menace is darker and the characters more believable' Esquire
‘A turbocharged thriller’ In Style
‘Will be compared, inevitably, to The Da Vinci Code. The similarities are difficult to ignore, but it’s far better written … will thrill any conspiracy-theory fans … a highly enjoyable read’ Psychologies
About the author
Sam Bourne is a pseudonym for Jonathan Freedland, an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. He writes a weekly column in the Guardian, as well as a monthly piece for the Jewish Chronicle. He also presents BBC Radio 4's contemporary history series, The Long View. In the annual What the Papers Say awards of 2002 Jonathan Freedland was named Columnist of the Year and praised for his incisive, original, strong and very outspoken views. He lives in London with his wife and their two children. ‘The Righteous Men’ is his first novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bourne's first novel, with a jacket that promises ancient secrets and mysterious manuscripts, has all the obligatory religious-thriller elements. Unfortunately, his hero, fledgling New York Times reporter Will Monroe Jr., is clueless, the structure unoriginal, the code-breaking boring, the earth-shattering threat unbelievable and the writing often clumsy ("Will felt his eyes soaking with tears"). Will, while investigating his first murder story, discovers that the victim, a pimp with multiple stab wounds, has a heart of gold and is indeed a "righteous man." After Will writes about another righteous man's murder, Will's wife, Beth, is abducted. Will's search for Beth leads him to the insular Hasidic community of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where he undergoes a bit of torture while learning the history of Judaism. Eventually, Will unearths a vast conspiracy whose goal is Armageddon, the end of the world. Bourne, the pseudonym of British journalist Jonathan Freedland, has done his homework, but the heavy breathing one senses is not the sound of captivated readers whipping through the pages but rather that of an anxious author frantically attempting to hammer his extensive research into the mold of bestselling fiction. Rights sold in 24 countries.
