A Body Farm Novel, by Jefferson Bass, William Morrow, May 2012.
*Note: I received this book from the publisher for review. I also was a student of one of the authors (Dr. Bill Bass) when he was head of UT-Knoxville's Anthropology Department.
Dr. Bill Brockton, forensic anthropologist and founder of the University of Tennessee's anthropology research center known as The Body Farm, flies to Avignon, France to help unravel the mystery of an ancient skeleton found underneath the Palace of the Popes. His research assistant, Miranda Lovelady, and French archaeologist, Stefan Beauvoir, have discovered a stone ossuary with carvings of a lamb and a cross on the outside and a full skeleton showing evidence of crucifiction inside. They need Bill's expertise and discretion to determine if the bones could be those of Jesus of Nazareth. During their research, Bill and Miranda see similarities between the ossuary's skeleton and the Shroud of Turin, confusing their findings even more. When carbon-14 dating determines the bones are around 2000 years old and Stefan is killed, the identity of the ossuary's skeleton becomes less important than the identity of his murderer.
Moving back and forth between the present day and the early 1300's, the authors present a theory about the basis for the illustration on the Shroud of Turin and fictionalize interactions between the White Cardinal, Jacques Fournier (who became Pope Benedict XII) and Johannes Eckhart, a prominent Dominican theologian and mystic, and other players in the early years of the papacy at Avignon. I thought the backstory was unnecessary to the mystery part of the story, but it did help explain how hypocritical the pope and the popes' followers were while in Avignon.
Tripping in and out of different centuries failed to move the story along. I found it quite slow, with very little action and not a lot of tension, And while I was disappointed in the abrupt ending, I did appreciate the twist near the end. It was a complete surprise and done very well.
All in all, The Inquisitor's Key isn't as suspenseful and might not hold the reader's interest as other books in the Body Farm series. However, intertwining information on Avignon and its papacy years throughout the story should make it a worthwhile read for history enthusiasts.
****
PROTAGONIST: A fit, 50-ish, forensic anthropologist and supervisor of the Body Farm at UT-Knoxville
ACTION: Car chase in France and Italy, running from a possible murderer
POTENTIAL LOVE INTEREST: The protagonist's 26-year-old female graduate student
INTERESTING TIDBITS: History of the papacy in Avignon, France; theory on how illustration was made on Shroud of Turin; info on artist Simone Martini and poet/philosopher Francesco Petrarch
IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU MAY LIKE: The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, The Paris Vendetta by Steve Berry, Map of Bones by James Rollins, The Sacred Vault by Andy McDermott