The Dead Sea Codex

Lisa Donahue Mysteries #1

by Sarah Wisseman

While visiting Israel, archaeologist and museum curator Lisa Donahue finds an ancient papyrus, part of a lost first century AD codex on the teachings of Jesus' female disciples. Lisa teams up with her ex-boyfriend Gregory Manzur, racing to find the rest of the codex ahead of Christian fanatics who will kill to prevent the codex's publication. Told from multiple points of view, this mystery/suspense story is set in Israel in 1997, prior to the recent Palestinian uprisings. The characters, two American archaeologists, a Jordanian epigrapher, a Lebanese museum curator, an Arab-Israeli registrar, and an American conservator, reflect the diverse population and religious beliefs of modern Israel. Since the provenance of the papyri turns out to be a cave located smack on the Jordanian-Israeli border, an international committee is convened to determine the ultimate fate of the Dead Sea Codex.

Genres: Mystery

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Sarah Wisseman (a.k.a. Sally Underhill) grew up in Evanston, Illinois and Weston Massachusetts. She remembers being surrounded by books all her life, especially moldy old Penguin paperbacks (Rex Stout, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey) that were fought over by her parents. Her mother was a weaver and avid reader, and her father, Thomas Underhill, was a lawyer who wrote mysteries and crossword puzzles. Her son, Nick, has adopted the pen name of his deceased grandfather ("Tom Underhill") and writes historical fantasy in northern Michigan.

Sarah hadn’t a clue that she wanted to be an archaeologist until she traveled to Israel right after her freshman year in college. There she ate felafel, fell in love with Jerusalem, camped illegally on Masada, and spent a month at the excavation of biblical Beersheba. Once hooked by archaeology, she returned for her Junior Year Abroad at Tel Aviv University, an experience that eventually inspired Book 1, The Dead Sea Codex. Books 2 and 3, Bound for Eternity and The Fall of Augustus, were inspired by Sarah's job as a curator in a dusty attic museum. Book 4, The House of the Sphinx, was the result of a trip to Egypt in 2005.

Reviews

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are rumors that a new manuscript from the Dead Sea area has been discovered and is for sale on the black market. Some say that the scroll was written by a woman, a female apostle of Christ, and is consistent with other Gnostic texts. There is even suspicion that the codex discusses a second set of twelve apostles, all female and let by Mary Magdalene. Whatever the true identity of this artifact, there is definitely something special about this papyrus, people are willing to kill for it.

The Dead Sea Codex is full of mystery, intrigue, and the potential questioning of everything we've believed true of Christianity and its origins. This smart mystery allows the reader to travel to Israel and become an archaeologist, and adventurer, and treasure hunter for just a little while.

[pdarnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

A romp through Israel seeking archaeological relics. Conspiracy, international intrigue, love interest both past and present, mystery, controversy, death, terrorists, market place, hiking, camping, museums, archaeological preservation, caves and cliff climbing, adventure and terror, different belief points of view striving with and against each other, family and friendships, the topic of middle eastern women's rights (to work and have family).

I enjoyed the story.