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The Observer
“Gods in the Ruins,” which came out last spring, is the first in Msgr. Eric Barr’s Vatican Archives Thriller series.
As the book opens in 2003, an 8-year-old boy, Daniel Aziz, receives a gift from Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. The boy, the son of a Catholic archeologist, is surprised by the gift, but not nearly as surprised as he is years later when his father discovers a mysterious artifact in a tomb in Babylon, an artifact that is written in an ancient language – all except for a date in modern English that is said to be the day when the world will end – Nov. 1, All Saints Day in the liturgical calendar.
Among others, the cast includes Daniel, by then a priest who is an archeologist for the Vatican; an Irish pope who has taken the name Patrick; and the director of the CIA, Leslie Richardson, who has inherited a mysterious antiquities project from her predecessor.
While the adventures that befall Daniel and the others are harrowing, and the villains at times appear to be supernatural, the powers wielded by Daniel, the pope and others seem nothing short of miraculous.
Msgr. Barr, who writes as E.R. Barr, has always been open about his admiration for C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as his love of mythological tales from the Celts and Native Americans. And those influences are evident in his previous work in the Conor Archer series, as well as in “Gods in the Ruins.”
This time, he adds the ancient gods of the Fertile Crescent of Iraq into the backdrop of the story. But, never content to live in the past, he weaves in contemporary science and political threats to raise the stakes of his thriller.
And he drops in occasional references to television shows, such as the science fiction classic “The X-Files” and the adventure series “The A-Team.”
This novel, also, has some of the feel of Dan Brown’s fast-paced thrillers, but you can expect any Catholic theology to be on target. Nevertheless, Msgr. Barr lets his imagination roam free in all of his books, leading to complicated twists and turns that will keep you guessing about who will live and who will die.
Don’t expect a neat resolution at the end of the book, though. Instead, there is a brief respite from the most immediate threat, but also a cliff-hanger of global proportions.
And an author’s note promises an eventual intersection of these and the Conor Archer stories.
The next book in the Vatican Archives series, “Beneath Bishops’ Bones,” is slated for early 2022 release, and the next Conor Archer book, “Driftless,” is also scheduled next year.
Find all of Msgr. Eric (E.R.) Barr’s books through online retailers. Keep up to date at https://talesofconorarcher.com/
