The Righteous Men Book

A series of brutal murders around the globe . . . an ancient prophecy of the end of the world . . . an international bestseller in the blockbuster tradition of The Last Templar

New York Times reporter Will Monroe's investigation of a rash of seemingly random killings takes a dark and dangerous turn when his wife is kidnapped by shadowy enemies who want him to stop. Desperate to save his wife, Will follows the clues into the heart of New York's Hassidic community, and learns that the stakes of his quest are higher then he could ever imagine. As the death toll rises, he enlists an eccentric Kabbalah expert to decode his wife's captors' cryptic messages. The trail they pursue leads inexorably to a set of ancient texts and a prophecy that will save the world . . . or destroy all of life as we know it.

What will happen when the one secret that has kept the world safe for thousands of years is revealed to all? In The Righteous Men, a...

Publishers Weekly

Bourne's first novel, with a jacket that promises ancient secrets and mysterious manuscripts, has all the obligatory religious-thriller elements. Unfortunately, his hero, fledgling New York Times reporter Will Monroe Jr., is clueless, the structure unoriginal, the code-breaking boring, the earth-shattering threat unbelievable and the writing often clumsy ("Will felt his eyes soaking with tears"). Will, while investigating his first murder story, discovers that the victim, a pimp with multiple stab wounds, has a heart of gold and is indeed a "righteous man." After Will writes about another righteous man's murder, Will's wife, Beth, is abducted. Will's search for Beth leads him to the insular Hasidic community of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where he undergoes a bit of torture while learning the history of Judaism. Eventually, Will unearths a vast conspiracy whose goal is Armageddon, the end of the world. Bourne, the pseudonym of British journalist Jonathan Freedland, has done his homework, but the heavy breathing one senses is not the sound of captivated readers whipping through the pages but rather that of an anxious author frantically attempting to hammer his extensive research into the mold of bestselling fiction. Rights sold in 24 countries. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.