With these cryptic words, a conspiracy is set in motion. It threatens a new translation of the Bible ordered by King James I. The year is 1605.In Cambridge England one of the translators is savagely murdered. Deacon Marbury, charged with protecting the group, seeks outside help to find the murderer. But the people who offer to help are not who they claim to be and the man they send to Marbury--Brother Timon--has a secret past and blood on his hands. He is the agent of certain forces that hope to halt the translation itself. The killer continues his gruesome work; the body count rises. Brother Timon is torn between conflicting loyalties. He believes that an even greater crisis looms; ancient and alarming secrets are revealed. These secrets date to the earliest days of Christianity and threaten the most basic of its beliefs.
"Poignant in places, nail-bitingly tense in others, The King James Conspiracy is smart, detailed, and highly entertaining. The story resonates, blending myth with reality, tragedy with triumph, and history with passion into a compelling tale. Phillip DePoy clearly knows what he' s doing."
~ NY Times Best-selling author Steve Berry
"A marvelous read! I loved the intertwining mysteries of this book, the vivid sense of history, and the strong characterization. Phillip DePoy has the ability to make fictionalized history seem like the real thing."
~ Best selling author Mary Balogh
From the May 1, 2009 issue of Booklist:
"What if, in the original Hebrew gospels, there were secrets so shocking that revealing them could be disastrous for the Church of England? And what if there had been a fiendish conspiracy to prevent the creation of the King James Bible, a conspiracy of men so desperate to keep the buried secrets from being exposed that they would stop at nothing, not even murder? That’s the premise of this exciting and thought-provoking novel, set in 1605 and featuring a large cast of real-life characters. The only completely fictional character is Brother Timon, who is hired by the translators to find out who is trying to stop the translation. Timon is a compellingly multilayered character (we spend most of the book trying to decide if he’s a good guy or a villain). Like Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, which also involves murder and religion, the novel is a splendid mixture of history and mystery, with vibrant characters and some solid twists and turns.
~David Pitt
The King James Conspiracy
