Calix
Calix (in the English original: Unholy Grail ) is a religious thriller by the American writer DL Wilson . After negotiations with literary agent Matt Bialer , the original edition was published by Penguin Verlag in 2007, followed by a German translation by Theresia Übelhör , published by S. Fischer Verlag in March 2007 , and another publication by EXMO Verlag in Russia.
action
In New York City , Father Joseph Romano of the Jesuit Order is working with his two student assistants Charlie and Carlotta on a continuation of his book "The God of the New Testament ", which deals with the birth, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus when he was anonymous Caller to Grand Central Terminal asks. He is to be given a cassette with the original parchment that James , the brother of Jesus, wrote and describes the actual course of the crucifixion of Christ. When Romano arrives at the agreed location, the historian Professor Brittany Hamar is shot, who was lured by the anonymous caller under the same pretext, and the cassette is handed to Romano without being able to identify the carrier of the cassette in the chaos. However, the cassette does not contain the promised manuscript, but the weapon with which Hamar was injured.
Romano and Hamar are only linked by their profession. Romano is a priest with ties to the Vatican , while Hamar is writing the revealing book "The Jesus Scam" which, based on evidence of a physical descendant of Jesus, Le Serpent Rouge , could mean the downfall of the Christian Church. In doing so, she has directed not only the anger of the Vatican, but also of various religious fanatics on herself.
A few days after the attack on Hamar, Swiss- born Father Ted Matthews, who raised Romano like a son, is found dead in his bed in the novice home of the Jesuit Center in Pennsylvania . Stripped except for his boxer shorts, he was found with stigmata on his hands, feet and the left side of his torso, without a single drop of blood on the sheets. The FBI is investigating.
Romano learns that two days earlier the Jesuit Father Juan Matteo was found dead in Bilbao with identical stigmata and that Hamar had interviewed both Jesuits the day before their death in order to learn important information about the descendants of Christ. Hamar had received a tip from an anonymous caller that the two priests could help her find Le Serpent Rouge and Rex Deus if she addressed them by the names of the archangels Uriel and Raphael . These are aliases used by the Council of Kohanim , which must keep the descendants of Christ alive until the Last Judgment .
When Hamar mentions to Father Romano that she would be flying to Vienna in a few hours to meet another priest, Romano spontaneously decides to accompany her.
Meanwhile in New Orleans , Nathan Sinclair, the third priest with stigmata, is found dead. However, traces of an electric shocker on his chest and the puncture site of an injection needle can also be made out.
In Vienna, Hamar and Romano meet the former priest and parish priest Felix Konrad, who has the reputation of a paranoid conspiracy theorist . After this meeting, the contract killer Gabriel and murderer of the three Jesuit priests, hired by the council, also seeks out Felix Konrad in order to kill him as well and to continue to protect the secret of the council around the descendants of Jesus.
As part of her research, Hamar sets off from Vienna to Rennes-le-Château in the French Pyrenees, in search of the meaning and whereabouts of the Holy Grail . There the Abbé Bérenger Saunière is said to have found secret documents of the Gospel of James during renovation work on the church, for the further secrecy of which he was paid large sums by the church. But it is possible that he even found the bones of Mary Magdalene , which represent the true holy grail.
Hamar and Romano are accommodated in an inn at the gates of Rennes-le-Château. The next morning, Romano starts the day with an endurance run. Meanwhile, Hamar is woken up by Gabriel and taken to a secret complex below the stables. A short time later, Father Dante Cristoforo, the assistant to the general of the order in Rome , also leads Romano to the secret underground complex where the most sacred relics of Rex Deus are kept. These include a statue of Mary Magdalene that has disappeared from Rennes-le-Château, which is in fact her urn , a scroll of the Gospel of James and a glass coffin that contains the preserved mummy of Jesus.
Father Dante Cristoforo, who is also the twin brother of Brittany Hamar, gave Hamar anonymous tips on which contact persons could give her information about the descendants of Jesus. At the same time he had chosen for himself the task of protecting the Christian church by wiping out Rex Deus . For this purpose he had chosen the highest holiday of the Council of Five of Rex Deus , the descendants of the 24 high priests of the Temple of Herod in Jerusalem , who meet every year on this holiest holiday in their underground complex to pay homage to the relics. So that no one of the council can leave the complex alive, he destroys the control electronics of the doors and the elevator after the council arrives and activates the time fuse of an explosive device that will destroy the complex.
When Cristoforo returns to Hamar and Romano, he is overwhelmed by the two and they can escape with the scroll through a ventilation shaft and an adjoining cave system before the complex is destroyed.
In the meantime, the local police forces and investigators from the FBI have arrived in Rennes-le-Château and accompany Hamar and Romano back to the United States , where it ultimately turns out that the rescued document was written on original parchment, but in contemporary ink and thus a forgery represents.
Reviews
The novel is “a gripping thriller teeming with intrigue and gripping the imagination of its readers. An absolute must, ”said bestselling author Clive Cussler of the NY Times . The crime writer Lynn S. Hightower found the work “absolutely exciting, very exciting”, while the author Thomas O'Callaghan praised it as “a cleverly written, suspenseful thriller - from the first page. From the hallowed halls of academia to the venerated shrine of the church, DL Wilson masterfully weaves the story of serial killings, secrecy, and fraud. Well-developed character, exceptional expertise and perfect pace are the combination for this captivating book. "
The Edgar Award winner Molly Cochran judged the novel Calix to be “a frenzied train that takes the reader on an odyssey through intrigues, frauds and murders - all within the framework of the Catholic Church's ultra-secret intelligence. Comparisons to the Da Vinci Code are inevitable, but beware: DL Wilson is not a Dan Brown clone. He's a master class storyteller who takes this new genre - let's call it religious thriller - to an unholy new level. ”The verdict was very similar to the criticism of the author Andrew Gross . In his judgment, the novel is “a fast-paced, well-written religious thriller in the style of the Da Vinci Code - illuminating and surprising. Dan Brown fans will not be disappointed when the scenes move from Grand Central to the streets of Rome to find their conclusion in the French Alps . ”
expenditure
- Original edition: "Unholy Grail", Penguin Verlag, 2007, New York / New York, ISBN 978-0-425-21478-7
- German edition: "Calix", S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-17618-2