A Skeleton in God's Closet Book

I have very mixed feelings about this book, so I'm going to have to break down my review in multiple parts.

The Author: Paul Maier is a great scholar, and I have greatly appreciated his translations of Eusebius and Josephus. They are highly readable and widely acclaimed. I also read and enjoyed his historical novel Pontius Pilate, though it was a bit on the dry and scholarly side for a work of fiction. I think, however, in the case of this book, Maier would have benefited from the presence of a co-writer who could help shape his prose and make it more readable.

The Pros: The premise for the book is brilliant; a tomb is discovered at the site of ancient Arimathea that contains what appear to be Jesus' bones, a conclusion supported by a huge amount of airtight evidence. As the shockwaves of this discovery ripple through the Christian world, a coalition of scholars is created to comb through and verify the evidence. The way the plot unfolds is gripping, the stuff of a great thriller. If I were judging the book on plot alone, it would rate 4 or 5 stars.

The Cons: However, there were some serious problems that kept me from enjoying the book. Chief among these was the fact that the characters never seemed real. Almost all of them came across as cardboard cutouts, and many of the characters were awkward stereotypes. The Irish scholar talks with a brogue that might better fit Lucky the Leprechaun, and the British leader of the expedition is full of "Cheerio"s, "Simply splendid old boy"s, and "right-o chap". I've never met someone from England that talked remotely like someone who walked out of an Agatha Christie novel from the 1930s.

Second, Maier finds that he wants to include a lot of information for his readers, but can't seem to find a good way to do a believable info dump. I found myself reading through the book and being confronted with multiple situations in which two Ph.D. level archaeologists are talking and one turns to the other and says something along the lines of, "Silly question I know, but could you just explain to me how carbon dating works once again?" These painfully clumsy moments jerked me out of the story every time. Likewise whenever a character makes a quotation in a foreign language, they always self translate, even if they're speaking to colleagues who know the language. So a character, talking to a Frenchman might say something like "Bonne chance, mon ami. Good luck, my friend." I'm of the opinion that, in situations like this, authors should simply leave the phrase untranslated, and if readers don't know French, then they can look it up.

Finally, the romantic subplot in the story is awful. I feel like it's being told by a 12 year old. It is awkward and unrealistic at every moment. I know that the author is married with children, so he presumably knows how men and women talk, but I wouldn't know that by reading this book.

So in conclusion, A Skeleton in God's Closet has a stellar plot with a brilliant denouement, but the author really needed someone to help him with his storytelling and characterization techniques. I don't regret reading the book, but I don't think I could ever recommend it as a fun read for anyone else. If you're interested in Maier, get his book on Pontius Pilate, or check out his translation work.