The bad guys need to round up 3 extant Gutenberg bibles so they can piece together a secret code through the illuminations and gain “immeasurable wealth while doing incalculable damage to two major religions.” They kidnap the kid of a rare book dealer or “archeobibliologist” August Adams who’s knowledge base is the only hope the bad guys have to figure out the mystery.
Adam’s wife also happens to be a librarian at the Library of Congress and has access to their copy of the Bible which is also needed for this operation. Her name is April.
One of the main villains is a Dr. Winter.
So now we have an August an April and a Winter.
At best this is a screenplay masquerading as a book, you can see a Brad Pitt as August and Angelina Jolie as April spectacle with Samuel Jackson playing the evil Dr. Winter.
Illuminated is also the first in a projected 5 book series for Thomas Nelson so think sequel potential.
But as a book it was disappointing. There is way too much violence inflicted on both people and books for my liking, and especially so coming from a publisher whose tagline is “Publishers of Inspirational Books, Videos…” and publishes many of the country’s the leading Christian authors and from an author who was a founding member of the Christian rock band Jars of Clay.
It is a first book and Bronleewe does succeed in getting out the thriller hook and catching you early and he does show promise but you get the sense that this might have been written for the movie option as much as for it being a successful book. It’s like thinking music video at the same time you are writing the song.
Book Patrol puts it on the: Bottom Shelf
Interview with the author at TitleTrakk.com
Author Matt Bronleewe’s home page and myspace page