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In THE EXPECTED ONE, heroine Maureen Pascal joined the throng searching for artistic and architectural clues to hidden gospels about Mary Magdalene and her relationship with Jesus. Da Vinci having been taken, Botticelli is given the credit for Maureen's success. Now, as THE BOOK OF LOVE opens, Maureen's erstwhile lover, Bérenger Sinclair, has received a detailed family tree that includes the name Michelangelo Buonarroti. Maureen is being run off her feet in a series of publicity interviews for her book about her experience, although she had to write it as fiction due to a deal with the Catholic church. She also receives a package with part of an ancient manuscript. Having uncovered the truth about Mary, it is time for her to uncover the truth about another great female church leader – Matilda of Tuscany, secret wife of the Pope. The story is told in snapshots through history: not just of Maureen's searches, but Matilda's struggles and scenes from many other female prophets through the ages, the specially born Expected Ones who were tasked to keep safe the Libro Rosso – the Book of Love penned by Jesus himself. It's hard to judge THE BOOK OF LOVE as a separate novel because it has been obviously worked into the Magdalene Line series, with plenty of references to the previous book and heavy foreshadowing of the next. Certainly the series should not be read out of order. It's also hard to judge the series against the DA VINCI CODE juggernaut, mostly because so many of the same tropes are being applied in the same manner - a handful of dedicated people attempting to piece together cryptic clues while the might of the Catholic church moves to suppress them. I'd like to recommend it – certainly it's competently written and full of exciting adventures – but at the same time, I just can't suspend my disbelief far enough to clear every hurdle set before it by the plot. I'm mostly troubled by the Expected One plotline and its fairy tale-like insistence on the specialness of women born on a certain day with a certain hair color. But I also have to wonder how the supposedly all-powerful church hasn't noticed through centuries of suppression that every artist and architect seems determined and able to expose the secrets that are being locked away. At this rate, before it is through, the Magdalene Line series will suggest that every famous cathedral and painting and half the women in history are part of the conspiracy, and that just seems to be a bit much.
Reviewed by Linnea Dodson, March 2009
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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