ON THE THIRD DAY

by Michael Delahaye ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 6, 1984

In The Body (1982), Richard Ben Sapir developed a not-quite-original idea--the discovery of Jesus Christ's mortal remains--into a solid, archaeological/theological novel. Here, in his first US-published novel, Delahaye plays the same idea for busy, talky international suspense--with slow, farfetched; occasionally involving results. For Israel, in the midst of negotiations (re the West Bank, etc.) with an anti-Semitic US President, the virtually secret possession of the newly discovered bones of Christ is a powerful bargaining chip. (Revelation of the find would ""certainly be the end of the Catholic Church, if not Christianity itself."") So the CIA concocts a scheme, using Palestinians and an unstable archbishop, to steal the bones: a US authentication team goes to Israel to view the bones, which are brought out of their super-secure hiding place; the bones are then hijacked, with a Palestinian driver and the archbishop heading for Jordan with them; but the archbishop goes suicidally crazy, while the bones get hidden in a cave, still inside Israel. How will the US get the bones out of Israel? Or, seen from the other viewpoint, how will Israel gets it hands on the bones again? The possible answer to both questions seems to focus on US-born reporter Dan Kesler, now living in Jerusalem with an Israeli wife and son--and working part-time as an informer for the CIA. When Kesler's son is killed in a terrorist bombing (his wife is critically injured), the Israelis--who know that Kesler is a US informer--devise a twisty scheme that Kesler goes along with to please his dying, patriotic wife. If he requests permission to have his son's body flown to America for burial, won't the CIA grab this opportunity to smuggle the Christ remains out of Israel in the little boy's coffin? They will indeed--giving the Israelis a chance to steal the bones back. Meanwhile, however, the Vatican is doing its darndest to simply have the bones destroyed. And so on, up to the fairly predictable, bone-switching conclusion. . . with poor Kesler caught in between conflicting loyalties and power-plays. Delahaye badly over-populates this unsteady novel: subplots feature internal wrangles in the Knesset, the love-life of Israel's defense minister, rivalries in the Vatican, and much more--leaving insufficient focus for quasi-hero Kesler. The pace, in the first half especially, is sluggish, with long speeches of exposition and excess belaboring of each plot notion. Still, if neither shrewdly crafted nor even marginally plausible, this features more than a few appealing characters, a fresh twist or two, and enough solid issue-material (including a sketched-out West Bank settlement) to add up to serviceable, semi-serious thriller entertainment.

Pub Date: July 6, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION