Sometimes when I'm reading a book I'm not sure if I'm meant to be excited, enrapt, or cringing. It's taken me a few days to arrive at a decision and I've decided to cringe.Sign of the Cross is a fast paced action adventure novel in the vein of Steve Berry, James Rollins, or that guy who wrote the book that annoyed the Pope; what was his name? In the second instalment of Payne and Jones' adventures, the mercenaries are hired to hunt down two archaeologists who have uncovered a secret that could bring down the Catholic Church. Meanwhile a team of killers are reenacting the crucifixion, because, you know, that's what Jesus would have wanted. With everyone hunting for Payne, Jones and their pet archaeologists, and a few murderers running around, who at the Vatican knows and who wants the secret, and do they want it for power or payback?This is the first Chris Kuzneski book I've read, and it will be my last. Now that I've had time to reflect upon the story and writing, I'm actually surprised I finished the novel. Kuzneski came up in my recommendations because he writes fast paced adventure novels like two of my favourite authors, the previously mentioned Berry and Rollins. Unlike those two, however, Kuzneski takes all of the same ingredients for a novel, mixes them in an overly large bowl (the book is over 400 pages), and manages to make gruel.The novel started well, but I noticed myself cringing at the end of the chapters with the ham-fisted foreshadowing. This continued until I would start preemptively cringing as I reached the end of each chapter. Seriously, it felt like the end of every scene or chapter Kuzneski would have a line like "Little did they know that only two of them would return." But wait, there is more. There is an underlying casual sexism and racism to the novel that is unintentional, but jarring. An early scene has one of the characters, Nick Dial, surprised to see a woman Interpol agent. Not that Nick was sexist, women could be just as good as men....... No, Nick explained that he wasn't sexist, but some of his bosses weren't as open minded. Yeah. I'm not sexist, but....These two points are just the major problems I had with the writing of this novel. And it is mainly the writing that lets this book down. In the example I just mentioned, there are many ways authors could discuss Nick's surprise at seeing a woman on the job. But the way the scene was written it sounded like the author was desperately trying to sound progressive and PC. This poor writing happened throughout the book, which actually has a reasonable plot, a bit of humour, and great pacing. Some readers may not notice these issues, although I note many reviews complain about the foreshadowing, and it was entertaining enough for me to finish reading, so others may find this enjoyable. But I would recommend reading anything by Steve Berry or James Rollins instead.
This book is another in the recent spate of papal suspense novels. Only so-so at best. Some of the better features are the use of religious theory regarding past events of the Roman Catholic church, such as the premise that the (likely mythic) Pope John VIII was really female (or "Pope Joan," if you will), and not to be confused with the real Pope John VIII who was male; or catacombs used as long-term storage of papal documents, which may or may not have been hidden for specific reasons. However, as interesting as these bits may have been to varying degrees, others seem to have been provided simply as speculative vehicles to move the story along. Not good.But especially exasperating was his technique of leading you by the hand from chapter to chapter as though you'd be unable to make the connection. It's almost as though he's saying with each chapter closing, "if you think that's something, just wait for what comes next!" I don't need that. He also name-drops as a fop to contemporary writers. In one scene, the main Interpol inspector calls a collegue who is a treasure trove of miscellaneous information. The inspector asks his collegue (not verbatim), "How much do you know about the Bible?" Instead of saying something pithy like, "More than the Pope," the author has him saying "More than Dan Brown." Crikey, but isn't that a bit much? This book needed a rather critical editor, but it seems one was not in the room.
What do You think about Sign Of The Cross (2006)?
Have you ever had that experience that occurs when people find out that you're a reader and so the next time they see you, they're clutching a book in hand that they force upon you while insisting that you read it? And not when you can get around to it, oh, no, they want you to read it NOW. They look so damn hopeful that you, too, will love it that you just can't say no. That's how I came upon this little turd-nugget of a book. This is one of the most pitifully written books I've ever read. Every other chapter ends with a statement like, "Little did he know that in two hours, he would be dead" or "Little did she know that she held in her hands a secret that could destroy history." Gee, foreshadow much? It reads as though it was written by a testosterone fueled 13 year old boy who just can't stuff a story with enough oozing blood, explosions, high tech weaponry, fast cars, and macho banter between two special ops characters. Now mind you, I'm all for the mindless bit of entertaining fluff as long as it's well written. However, this is so terribly written that I found myself groaning aloud and longing to fling it across the room. But I couldn't, because I have to return it and, with a forced smile, say it was entertaining and that, no, I have far too many books to read, so I really can't accept another.Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder
—Amanda
There's a WARNING in the author's notes at the end of this book which says some major plot twists will be spoiled if you read this note first. When I gave the book up on page 216 and I couldn't care I read the note and for the life of me I couldn't work out what twists have been spoiled. The problem with this book is it's all been said before: the Da Vinci, the First Apostle. Basically find some remote scroll Christianity is threatened blah blah. I loved Kuzneski's first book The Plantation, it was original, funny and tongue in cheek and the two main characters, Payne and Jones bounced off each other like two body-checking sumo wrestlers. This book is tedious, adds nothing new to the old conspiracy theory and again I must say, those quotes on the cover by Clive Cussler, James Patterson and Nelson Demille. Are these great men actually reading the same book as me or is it just some dreamy eyed editor getting paid to come up with these quotes? I have all the other Kuzneskis waiting on my bookcase. I hope they are better than this one.
—Giuseppe Ruotolo
When did all this interest in the so called "religious thriller" surface ? Was it the literary reformer Dan Brown who brought all these papal thriller writers to the fore ? Such questions ricocheted off the walls after i finished this book. To be frank, I took this book without any expectations at all and found this to be fun !! Yes, you heard me right it was fun. The first and foremost thing to do with such a book is to shut off your mind. Pretend that you dont see the jokes falling flat on their faces, the action scenes that would rival Chuck Norris and the ground breaking religious revelations that puts NGC to shame. Then you have a mindless plot line in your hands. You laugh your heart out at the most unintentional of parts and have a load of brainless fun. I seem to be reading a lot of such books lately and I find them good for health in the amount of laughs I have. I still am gonna read more of them.Make no mistake, it reads like something written by a teenager. But for the unintentional fun quotient, this book gets three stars from me.
—Arun Divakar
