The Alchemist's Secret
Scott Mariani
Publisher : HarperCollins Publishers; UK ed. edition (July 21, 2011)
Language : English
ISBN-10 : 1847563406
ISBN-13 : 978-1847563408
I can understand why this book became a best seller. It is right up there with some of the greats when it comes to cryptology. Dan Brown fans will love this book.
Ben Hope, a man with skills to put Jason Bourne to shame, is hired by a dying billionaire whose granddaughter (with the same name as Ben's lost sister) is dying and needs to locate an ancient manuscript containing a magic formula to save her life.
This book is filled with mystic codes, symbols, clues and riddles. In his search for the manuscript, Ben must dodge a heavily armed shadow Christian organization, called Gladius Domini, hell-bent on stopping him.
The only issue I have with the book is the amount of hoops, our hero, must jump through and puzzles, riddles he must solve to reach his goal. Just when you think he's finally reached the end, there's another twist. It kind of got to be too much near the end of the book.
Overall, this is a good and imaginative book with a couple of great plots. It is mostly well written, but the flashbacks are jolting (needed but jolting). Four of the characters I could connect with, but many of the others came across as villainess cardboard cutouts. Ben, Roberta (though some of her actions irritated me), the Archbishop and the Italian lady that fancied Ben (sorry forgot her name. I finished the book a few months ago and forgot to write the review or take notes).
This book is about an alchemist and the belief he discovered the secrets of immortality and created a potion, that naturally everyone wants.
85%
