Shrouded in Silence

by Robert L. Wise

Determined to find an answer, Jack and Michelle Townsend set out on a quest to find the original ending to the Gospel of Mark.Following ancient clues, they head for Rome, but what starts out as a scholarly search turns violent as two separate groups strive to stop the Townsends, plunging their quiet research into chaos.After a bomb destroys their office, the Townsends are pushed to the limits of their determination and commitment to God's will. Can faith in God's purposes endure in a swirl of conspiracy and espionage that brings the couple to the brink of death?""This is a story of well-hidden biblical secrets that have endured throughout the ages and of a couple's devotion to finding the truth. It's a story fraught with death, danger, and deception--of never knowing who to trust, and with a twist of an ending I didn't see coming. Great read "" --Sharon Sala, author of The Searcher's Blood Stains, Blood Ties, Blood Trails

Genres: Christian Fiction, Christian, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Ebooks

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

Robert L. Wise, Ph.D. is the author or coauthor of twenty-four books. He is a bishop in the communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches and has planted churches around the world. Dr. Wise and his wife, Margueritte, live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Reviews

[Louise Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - Determined to find an answer, Lock and Michelle Townsend set out on a quest to find the original ending to the Gospel of Mark. following ancient dues, they head for Rome, but what starts out as a scholarly search turns violent as two separate groups strive to stop the Townsends, plunging their quiet research into chaos. After a bomb destroys their office, the Townsends are pushed to the limits of their determination and commitment to Gods will. Can faith in god's purposes endure i a swirl of conspiracy and espionage that bring the couple to the brink of death?

I found this to be a badly written story with one-dimensional characters. It did start off showing signs of potential but unfortunately it was short lived.

[Robin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very unrealistic dialogue and characters. In this genre, I'm usually willing to overlook a little bit of that for the sake of a good story but this one was so bad, I could not get into and abandoned it after only 15%.

Thankfully it was a Kindle freebie so I didn't waste any money on it.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars

This is an excellent book full of mystery and intrigue. I had never thought about the ending of Mark until I read this book. I really loved the interactions between the two main characters. The author does a beautiful job of portraying a healthy Christian marriage.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sorry to say that I didn't get past 30 pages of this one. Though the writing felt stilted, the prologue was a little promising, but it went downhill. The entire first chapter should have been omitted, in my opinion. I'd already figured out what I'm guessing should have been a mystery before the end of chapter two. The writing was too formal, and long-winded at times, with too much explanation and description. The dialogue always felt like two people who really didn't like each other, yet they had to be civil.

I love a good suspense thriller, especially when it revolves around church history, but I can't recommend this one at all.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

So I had real issues with the sloppy spelling and grammar in this book that made it hard to take it seriously. “Your” instead of “you’re” (every time!) Ask instead of asked. Even got his there/they’re/their mixed up. And that’s beside the fact that the storyline is outrageously unrealistic at times and you have to suspend your disbelief in order to keep reading. I literally only read it to the end because I wanted to know what the “true” ending to the gospel of Mark was going to turn out to be (and I actually read it through instead of just skipping to the end because context) and… what they found after all that… was fucking fake and revealed nothing. Worst few hours wasted of my life that I can never get back.

Oh and to top it all off he has a section at the end of “discussion questions” as though the book were truly a work of great historic significance rather than a load of old shit

[CC. Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jack Townsend, with his wife Michelle, are on the track of the true ending to the ‘lost Gospel of Mark’. When their research stirs up some anti-American sentiment, they are surprised. When a story of them in the newspaper stirs up threats, they are alarmed. When their office is bombed, they know they’re on the right track!

Normally, this is the kind of book I absolutely love. I adore historical mysteries and anything with a biblical mystery is usually just icing on my book cupcake.

And, I was interested for about half of the book.

Then, things started to slide for me and just didn’t get back on track. There just wasn’t enough true historical information to keep me hanging one. Normally, a book like this one has me running to the computer to look up and verify facts. However, there were so few facts given that I soon lost interest in what should have been a fascinating subject. The lost Gospel of Mark had so much promise.

I also had trouble with some grammatical errors. There were so many errors that reading the book was jarring and I wanted to correct them. I also found the dialogue to be very stilted, almost as if I were reading a translation from another language.

There were also some plot twists towards the end that I thought just weren’t needed and really detracted from the storyline. Mixing anti-American terrorism with this type of historical thriller was overkill.

Overall, not one I enjoyed or one I can recommend.

[Mary Chrapliwy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Years ago I made one foray into the "Christian Fiction" genre that had a prayer on every other page, completely squashing the plot under religious preaching. That was a couple years ago and I have avoided anything labelled as "Christian Fiction" for that reason. The plot of this book sounded interesting so I took another chance with the genre. Though this book is labelled as "Christian Fiction," it doesn't ram religion down your throat, doesn't preach, and is far more plot driven.

The Townsends are married biblical scholars living in Rome and on the search for the ending of the gospel of Mark. Enter an evil man bent on thwarting their research for his own gain and a shadowy terrorist group bombing sites in Rome. Everyone is after the Townsends.

While the suspense was high, the plot was quite implausible, requiring the reader to suspend belief and not ask the reasonable questions, like, why would anyone want to kill a pair of biblical scholars? The characters were thoroughly human and flawed - they could have used a little more fleshing out. Ultimately, I didn't care a whole lot about any of them. But, I did find the book interesting enough and the suspense high enough to hold my interest to the end.

[Kate Bowyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story line was the best part of the book. Terrorists, the Vatican, biblical scholars looking for a lost piece of the bible, murder, the CIA and all set in Rome and Germany. But beyond that I was really let down.

Though the story line was the best part, it was very predictable by the end. One of the worst things about the book was the dialog. It was very rough and hard to read. It almost seemed like English was the authors second or maybe third language. If that's the case then they did a fine job.

This book really needed a good editor. The punctuation needed help and there were more then a few times where the book repeated. I read paragraphs that repeated what a previous paragraph had just said. When this happened the first time I reread both paragraphs to make sure my eyes weren't fooling me.

I'd stay away from this book. I hate to recommend that, but unless it goes through a good editor and they put a new copy out then don't waste your time.

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes I want a book that doesn't make you think -- just a good story to get lost in. I thought this had all the trappings that make a good action packed adventure -- Vatican, ancient manuscripts, terrorists -- alas, I was let down on all levels. It was sort of my own fault -- freebie on Kindle and I didn't know it was Christian Fiction.

Jack and Michelle Townsend are biblical scholars searching for the details of the ending of the Gospel of Mark. They are in Rome, working in the Vatican library. When terrorist attack Rome, they become a little more vigilant because they are worried about the sensitive nature of their work. But then, a bomb destroys their office and the bland story continues.

The dialogue was so difficult to read -- every conversation seemed to be forced. Most of the conversations would never take place in real life because people don't talk like that. For that reason,
I would suggest you pass on reading this book.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wise has crafted a well written novel involving the scholarship centered on the verification and preservation of biblical manuscripts. Through character dialogue, one learns much about the topics. Reading this novel is a painless way to learn some important aspects of Christian history. Even if one is not interested in the history aspect, this is an exciting novel about contemporary scholarship and the lengths some are willing to go to make a name for themselves in the academic world.

Advanced reader copy provided by NetGalley.

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another disappointing Christian suspense story--often boring, little cloak-and-dagger, meager character development. I had the so-called "suspense"--the one character that you're sure you can trust who turns out to be the dirtiest character--figured out as soon as he was introduced.

Again, writing that is very bland, an overuse of colorful words (how many times do you need to read "draconian" in one story?). And again, the lack of depth of the characters really left me unconcerned over both Jack and Michelle. No need to try another Robert Wise book.

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know this is suppose to be christian fiction, but this guy wrote too much about the written history of Mark. I thought it was going to be about the time the Book of Mark was written, but no. It was about 2008 and historians hunting down the missing piece of Mark. Just not fun for me. Not my type of literature. It is more for someone who likes a bunch of different characters and likes hearing different theories being tested. I just don't care and it wasn't worth my time.

[Karen Yaworski · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of the book was interesting. The search for the lost ending to the Gospel of Mark and the talk about The Prologue of James are fascinating subjects. It got away from that too much though for me with the "suspense" from the Scorpion group and their agenda seemed contrived. The numerous typos and incorrect word usage was distracting. In general, I enjoyed the book though it is written more for maybe a teenage audience.

[Abingdon Fiction · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This is a story of well-hidden biblical secrets that have endured throughout the ages and of a couple's devotion to finding the truth. It's a story fraught with death, danger, and deception--of never knowing who to trust, and with a twist of an ending I didn't see coming. Great read!" --Sharon Sala, author of The Searcher's Trilogy: Blood Stains, Blood Ties, Blood Trails

[Homer16 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very unrealistic dialogue and characters. The dialogue was so bad it felt like English isn't Mr. Wise's main language and that really detracted from the potential of this book. The storyline (although very predictable througout) had the potential of being a good book.
Fortunately this was a Nook freebie so I didn't waste any money on it.

[Sherry Ledet · Rating 1 out of 5]

Amazingly poor character building. I'm a little supprised it was ever published, but probably for the same reason I finished this book, the plot was intresting and I wanted to know what happened. However, the characters in this story would never do or say the things that Robert Wise's characters do and say. Sorry, can't recommend this book.

[Jennifer Erwin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Got this as a freebie download, and the blurb made it sound like the Da Vinci Code. So not the case. Too many different "bad guys" for my taste, and the characters just seemed contrived. I made it to 68% but that was after putting it down several times and reading a different book. I just wasn't able to really get into this book.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an ok read. It was another free kindle book, and as is the norm for those, there were several typos that I noticed which means there were most likely others. The plot was fairly predictable and the characters didn't have a lot of depth.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very similar to Dan Brown's books, this book was good for being free but was not as well written as it could have been. About a husband and wife looking for missing pieces of the Bible, they run into terrorists and psychos. Good read if you have nothing else to read and you can get it free.

[E.J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star! Not because it was christian book, because it was just purely BORING!

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

We'll see how this one unfolds... I'm intrigued with it so far. Not the best writing, but I'm enjoying the story.

[Knitkicky · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a slow read so far...I'm about 20% through it. The characterization/dialog is very wooden. Sounds like I should just drop it, huh?

[Kim Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK book. There are several spelling & grammatical errors which is annoying & makes me think this is a very amateur work. Thanks Carla for lending it to me!

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting story, but as others have mentioned the dialogue was quite awkward and unnatural.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book!

[Faye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story line, but the writing was a bit odd, almost as though the book was written in another language and translated oddly.

[Mike Leach · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not get past page 52 before I stopped reading this book. Not written very well.

[Veronica Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

good who-done-it with religion and religious artifacts thrown in.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good. Sometimes the action dragged. There were loose ends. It was an enjoyable read.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is no Da Vinci Code.... I had to push myself to finish it, employing a little speed reading / skipping sections along the way...