The Deadly Scrolls

The Jerusalem Mysteries #1

by Ellen Frankel

Set in modern Jerusalem and among the desert ruins of Qumran, this desperate hunt for an ancient treasure scroll pits a female Israeli intelligence agent against a religious fanatic hell-bent on bringing about the End of Days.

An American professor’s murder reveals his discovery of a lost Dead Sea Scroll, whose text encodes the secret hiding places of the lost Second Temple Treasures. Israeli intelligence agent Maya Rimon races against time to stop a religious extremist from launching a deadly terrorist attack at the next Blood Moon, triggering the Apocalypse in the holy city of Jerusalem.

The story centers around a genuine historical artifact, the so-called Copper Scroll, whose many secrets still remain undeciphered by contemporary scholars and treasure hunters. Despite decades of searching, not a single one of these invaluable treasures has ever been found.

Laced with clever spycraft, encrypted electronic files, mysterious ancient puzzles, plastique explosives, car chases, and Sherlockian ratiocination, The Deadly Scrolls explores the timely theme of fanaticism: among Christian millennialists, Jewish messianists, Islamic terrorists, Israeli politicians, Orthodox Jews, conspiracy theorists, devout Zionists—and spies. In other words, it’s a Jewish Da Vinci Code!

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

417 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 10, 2022

Reviews

[Donna]

Ellen Frankel is the new Daniel Silva. Deadly Scrolls is a page turner, set in Israel, that makes you feel like you're right there. And I loved the background history of the Dead Sea Scrolls too.

[Naseem Stecker]

The Deadly Scrolls weaves together a crackling story, history, world religions and archaeology in an irresistible concoction. A page turner and a must read for every mystery lover!

[june · Rating 5 out of 5]

This suspenseful murder mystery, steeped in the history surrounding an ancient scroll, was a page-turner. I read it in two days. Frankels' vivid descriptions of the characters, including religious fanatics, intelligence and law officials, and scholars of Jewish history, made the book come alive for me. I appreciated the author's postscript describing the real and fictional details of the book's ancient and modern time frames.

[sandra B. Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep and fascinating

I loved how the characters personalities developed.
I loved the historical details and how they were entwined with the present and that it took place in modern Israel.
The ending was amazing. Yay women!

[Chava · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy books about Israel, especially about ancient history, so Frankel's book attracted my attention. This is the first book in a series that follow Maya Rimon, a "Service" agent, as she tries to track down the murderer of an American professor. He may have discovered the secret of the Copper Scroll - where Temple objects were buried and hid from the Romans.

There was a strong sense of place, and Maya is a complicated character. She is at odds with her ex-husband and is torn between her career and her three-year-old daughter, Vered. Then there is Cassandra, a hacker who is hired to crack the encryption of the professor's file, a Lebanese antiquities dealer who dealings are questionable, and some Christian evangelical groups anxiously awaiting the Rapture, and willing to go to incredible lengths to make it happen. The short chapters helped to build tension, and the story was interesting.

But...I found most of the Israeli characters stereotypical, I did not like the little snipes about Yehuda Glick visiting the Temple Mount, checkpoints, nor the maps with the weird lines. The ending is very dramatic to the point of incredulity, and Maya blows off her love interest (who just happens to show up and save her at some remote caves).

I learned some new words:
jeremiad - a long, mournful complaint or lamentation; a list of woes
caravansary - an inn with a central courtyard for travelers in the desert regions of Asia or North Africa
plangent - loud, reverberating, and often melancholy
syncretism - the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought

Overall, an enjoyable and interesting read.

[Trevor Denning · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dr. Frankel's debut novel goes quickly, but I still felt like I wasted my time.

There's a good story to found around the real-life historical artifact at the center of this mystery, but this isn't it. The historical aspect is done very well, as is to be expected. However, the internal logic of the plot is inconsistent. She clearly didn't research guns or talk to anyone in law enforcement (you don't take the safety off a Glock or get a soldier's gun away from him), and cell phones don't exist when they'd be inconvenient. Among other issues.

Christians are portrayed as hillbilly nutjobs, Jews as sexually repressed weirdos, and Muslims... well, we don't dare put them in a bad light no matter how ambivalent we are about religion in general. I don't mind a feminist leaning, but at times it got a little heavy handed. But at the same time, why detailed descriptions of women's breasts?

I've read worse books this year. But I'm not coming back for the sequel.

[Julie Nadeau · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of intriguing characters, including the smart yet flawed protagonist, Maya, whose bravery sometimes tips into foolishness. Great novels have some truth woven in and this is no exception. Ellen Frankel gives the reader insight on modern day Jerusalem and the Dead Sea scrolls. This was a fun novel and I’m looking forward to the next two in the series!

[K Saju · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maya Rimon, an Israeli intelligence officer, investigates the murder of a professor who it seems was going to share with the community some explosive news about the dead sea scrolls and the treasures associated with it. Her investigation leads her to belive that there is an impending attack and she ignores her bosses warnings to let go of the investigation and now it is a race against time to find and take down the main culprit.
This was a good read with a good amount of history ( mixed with half truths) that kept it interesting.
My thanks to Netgalley for offering me a copy of this book for my unbiased feedback.
Overall Rating 3.5

[Robert Stecker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Deadly Scrolls is detective mystery that just makes you want to keep reading. It also contains a tale from ancient history within the main story and all kinds of fascinating facts about the Dead Sea Scroll written with such a light touch that they do not slow down the story’s pace. For a debut novel, this is a head turner as we as a page turner.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. Found it hard to stop “turning the pages.” Ellen Frankel has created a thrilling, gripping tale that is sprinkled with enough nuggets of historical tidbits and the tension of Jerusalem and competing interests to keep the reader entranced. Well done.

[Ellis Shuman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Deadly Scrolls by Ellen Frankel (Wicked Son, May 2022) starts out like a police procedural but has many of the elements of an Indiana Jones-like thriller. A murdered Biblical professor with cryptic files on his laptop. Scholars and villains searching for hidden Temple treasures. A corrupt Old City antiquities dealer. A purple-haired American held captive to decipher an ancient scroll. And a solitary Israeli intelligent agent racing to stop a fanatical millennialist bent on destroying the mosques on the Temple Mount.

Maya Rimon must balance her career in Israeli intelligence with being a single mother trapped in a custody battle over her daughter. With a botched operation in her past, Maya sets out single-handedly to solve the professor's murder and its connection with the Copper Scroll, a genuine Dead Sea Scrolls artifact. The scroll could possibly reveal the location of the Temple treasures, or alternatively set in motion the fanatic's plan to bring about the End of Days.

Ignoring protocol and the warnings of the Israel Police and her boss at the agency, Maya travels to unexplored caves at Qumran where additional scrolls may be buried. A race across the desert and through the Western Wall Tunnels leads her to a fateful confrontation deep under the Dome of the Rock.

Like other thrillers set in the Holy City, The Deadly Scrolls occasionally fails a basic course of Jerusalem geography. It doesn't take ten hours to drive from Efrat near Jerusalem to Almog just north of the Dead Sea, for example. Implausible plot twists aside, the novel ties together real and imagined Biblical treasures with modern-day fanatics determined to use those treasures to achieve their nefarious plans.

The Deadly Scrolls is well-written and its pace moves ahead quickly, making it overall a fun read, with promises of a Maya Rimon sequel ahead.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An author once commented that she enjoyed seeing her book “in conversation” with another in one of my reviews. I’d never thought about my work in those terms, but I often try to pair books with similar themes because the reviews are more interesting to write and (I hope) more interesting to read. However, sometimes I make a mistake about a book’s subject matter. Take, for example, “Acts of Atonement” by S. W. Leicher (Twisted Road Publication), which I planned to review with “The Deadly Scrolls: The Jerusalem Mysteries, Book One” by Ellen Frankel (Wicked Son) because I thought they were both mysteries. While the PR material about Leicher’s book mentioned a murder, there is no mystery. However, both novels do discuss family and religion as related to larger social issues.
See the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...

[Maura Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm only a quarter of the way through and I want to fire Frankel's editor. The most basic of errors have thrust me out of the story, e.g., how can a small man from across a desk grab the standing protagonist's shoulders? Did he leapfrog? Or, how can the ex-husband knock from outside and suddenly is in the living room/bedroom? Does he have keys to the apartment? Given the author's attention to detail, I'm rather surprised that elementary errors like this weren't caught.

Now, on to the prose. At first, I was blown away by the writing (in translation) thinking, Hmmm, why can't I write like this? But the overly descriptive adjectives have started to annoy the crap outta me. Why go into details about a proboscis when the reader (me) is still puzzling how the ex got into the apartment.

Again, I'm only a quarter of the way through. Will edit this review should I continue.

[Judy]

4.5 Well, I must confess that I have an obsession with the Dead Sea Scrolls. So much of what she described in the book was already familiar to me. It was very well done, she packed a lot of inf0rmation in tidily. The romance parts weren't too interesting, but the suspense is extremely well done. I didn't see how Cassandra was going to get out alive; I was really scared for her. So, it's well plotted, well written, with many characters. I'm guessing that all the stuff beneath the Temple Mount, the Wall of Souls and the secret staircase, are true. The villain of the piece is a little hard to believe - a giant hillbilly from W. Virginia, who manages to organize this many-layered conspiracy (without speaking a word of Hebrew!) in Israel. Maya Rimon is an agent worth rooting for. Since this was called Book 1, I assume there will be more. How will she keep the mystery alive?

[Harold Geller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent first installment of what I look forward to as a long series. The lead character, Maya Rimon is a wonderful, headstrong and unpredictable character, I look forward to her further adventures in disobedience, and dedication to her craft and her country. The author did an excellent job in character development, weaving the story, and dropping breadcrumbs. By the time the book was coming to an end, I found myself manipulating the puzzle pieces of the possible end game scenarios. I highly recommend this book!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maya Rimon works for an Israeli security force. She is a single mom fighting with her unreliable ex over custody. Her boss doesn’t trust her instincts but she follows them anyway. When she uncovers a plot led by an extreme Christian church, based on the idea that there is a duplicate copy of the Treasure Scroll revealing where the 2nd Temple treasures were hidden, she follows the evidence. Based on one of the Dead Sea scrolls, this was an exciting read

[Perlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an entertaining mystery set in Jerusalem, involving a Dead Sea Scroll from Second Temple times. All was going well, until the author decided to take a slam at Lubavitcher chassidim, mocking them, and twisting their words into a parody that has nothing to do with reality. It was a cheap shot, and I lost respect for the author.

[Steve Gross · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terrible. All of the characters, particularly the protagonist, are unlikable and unsympathetic. This book is filled with cliches.

[Kelly Rowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't something I'd normally pick up, but it was for book club, and I ended up really enjoying it. It's a fairly quick read. I generally recommend it

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I Liked: A page turner mystery from the perspective of a female Israeli intelligence officer.
What I Disliked: The plot transforms from a police investigation into an Indiana Jones adventure.

[esti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic...

[Joann Dunnavant · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a fun read. Reminiscent of Dan Brown novels with fun history along the way.

[Debbie Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent literate mystery

This was a fun, fairly quick read. Well written, good character development. Incorporates interesting details about Jewish history and culture.
Congratulations to the author on an excellent first novel!

[Elena · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the things that happened in this book is that the author lifted some incidents from the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship--which is, truly, wild, so I understand why you'd do it--right out, changed the names, and let it roll. I remember the plot as being pretty standard, and the cast of character just about what you'd assume populating a mildly Zionist thriller: hard nosed secular female detective (who seems like she is really not doing great as a parent, and I don't think its unfair of other people in the book to point out she's not doing well), Orthodox love interest with a little spice, American Christian millenarian nutjobs ruining everything, little hints of Mossad-style security state. All that said, it is the only book like it that i know of, and I inhaled it in a few days! So I appreciate that it exists, though it wasn't my favorite.

[Marge Congress · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the Jewish reviews of this book congratulate the author for her research in the topic, the story is just a mystery, not particularly well written. Did not impress me.

[Arielle Tate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Dead Sea Scrolls and this was quite good but it didn’t always feel like life and death. Also didn’t connect with the main character