THE DOOMSDAY SCROLL

by Barbara Rogers ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1979

Theological confusion and ungainly plotting mar this decently written but very messy Mideast spy tale. In a massacre of Israeli schoolchildren by Arab commandos, Israeli genius teenager Dov Weissmann is abducted--not because he's the son of an Israeli chemist who has invented a gasoline made from water (this Will subvert the entire Arab oil economy), but because the Arabs suspect that he is the messiah whom they have been awaiting. (Even as Bible prophecy has it, the messiah will arise among the Jews but will help reform the Arab states, which will have his greater sympathy,) All of this, as you might guess, is Bad News to the CIA, which doesn't know which way to swing to save the U.S. economy. CIA-man Jonathan Stone is over there, running around on the desert and through Jerusalem, staving off Israelis, Palestinians, and Russian KGB heavies in an effort to get his hands on young Dov, who is rapidly becoming a megalomaniac, demanding, among other things, possession of the Spear of Destiny (the one that wounded Christ) now in a Viennese museum. Meanwhile, a copper scroll has been unearthed in a cave near the Dead Sea, and this is the Doomsday Scroll that prophesies everything that's happening. A formula shoot-'em-up climax doesn't help dispel the feeling that this was an interesting idea that got out of hand--lost in an excess of haphazard elements pulled in from a variety of genres.

Pub Date: April 1, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION