Michael Cordy
ISBN 9780552154055 (0552154059)
Corgi Adult, 2005
£5.99

Category: Fiction
Subcategory: Thriller

This is a re-release of Michael Cordy's The Miracle Strain, rebranded to appeal to readers of The Da Vinci Code. Everything I said in my original review of The Miracle Strain still stands, just one thing I'd add: this knocks the socks off the The Da Vinci Code, a better novel by far. What follows is my original review, unabridged:

What makes a miracle miraculous? Is it simply our ignorance, the fact that we don't know what's really going on? What makes one person an incarnate deity and another a demon? What proportion of a person's behaviour and abilities is genetically programmed, and how much is determined by environment and upbringing? Where do we draw the line between righteous anger and religious fanaticism? Just a few of the questions that this page-turner of a novel throws up.

Dr Tom Carter is a brilliant geneticist and a self-proclaimed atheist. He's determined to find the source of Christ's miraculous power and to harness that power for medical science - by isolating Christ's DNA. He has a powerful incentive: if he fails, his own daughter will die as a tumour destroys her brain.

But the Brotherhood, an ancient Christian sect, are equally determined to stop him, convinced that his work is the ultimate blasphemy. Their own quest for the Messiah forces them to work with him, however: enemies hand in hand. The story twists and turns and had me hooked from the first page - it's graphic, it's gripping and it's not for the faint-hearted as first one character then another is brutally murdered. It might make you angry, it may make you weep as you recognize familiar entrenched attitudes - but it will certainly leave you asking "What if?" Read it now - before it happens.

Phil Groom, November 2005

Phil Groom is this site's Webmaster and Reviews Editor. He's a regular contributor to Christian Marketplace magazine and is the manager of London School of Theology Books & Resources. Any opinions expressed here are personal and should not be taken as representing the views of London School of Theology or of any other group or organisation.

Previously published by London School of Theology. Reused here by kind permission.

Authors | Categories | Publishers | Reviewers | Titles