THE TESTAMENT

Eric Conger does his best to make Van Lustbader's novel more than it is--yet another story about an ancient religious order that exists only to protect some dreadful secret that could bring down the modern Church. Conger goes through verbal gymnastics as he produces a United Nations of accents and gives each character a credible voice. But not even his efforts can disguise this boilerplate plot of a man who finds himself embroiled in conflict as he solves impossible puzzles that lead to a cache of secret stuff. Along the way, he falls in love with a beautiful woman. On the creepy side, the woman is his late father's mistress, and they fall in love in 8.2 seconds. Yeah, sure. M.S. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 07/ JAN 08]