Review: The First Apostle- James Becker

This mass market plot boiler is not the sort of book I usually read and for that reason, has been sat on my bookshelves for quite some time now.  A Christmas gift several years ago and shelved almost immediately on receipt, I dug ‘The First Apostle’ out of exile as part of my reading resolution (see previous posts). I shouldn’t have bothered.

I suspect that the world would never have been introduced to Chris Bronson if it wasn’t for the success of the Da Vinci Code.  The plot of ‘The First Apostle’ is fairly similar: a conspiracy by the Catholic Church to keep ‘the truth’ from the world; one ordinary man in the right place and the right time who stumbles across the most well guarded secret in history and unravels it all in the space of a few days with only his limited resources to hand and bad guys intent on keeping ‘the truth’ hidden.

Although it is widely accepted that this genre doesn’t take itself too seriously (created mainly as light entertainment for a quick read) like all genres, there are both good and bad examples to be found. Unfortunately, 'The First Apostle' is a poor example, carrying the hallmarks of inexperience and an often sloppy writing style.

Putting to one side the rather misleading tagline ‘A Secret Old As Time Itself’ (I take umbrage with a secret formed in the year 67 AD being described in such a blatantly exaggerated way. I’m guessing Bantam Book’s marketing team forgot about the Millennia categorised as ‘BC’), the plot itself is generally disappointing, with major points hanging on improbable coincidence. 

The main character, policeman Chris Bronson, is drawn into a religious conspiracy after the wife of his friend is discovered dead in their Italian home. Matters are complicated somewhat, as it turns out Bronson has been knowingly holding a flame for the deceased woman for some time. Bronson possesses quite the skill set, including an unexplained fluency in Italian (which means that even after the demise of his friends, the Hamptons, he can carry on investigating unimpeded), which is handy.   

Even more conveniently, after finding a trail of clues in Latin, Bronson taps into his serendipitous connections to gain timely information about history and various artifacts from his ex-wife and her colleagues at the British museum. The reason why his ex-wife is willing to help a man who married her knowing full well he was in love with another woman, is never fully explained, rather it is hinted at that she would quite like to be Mrs Bronson again. I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy a resourceful academic who keeps her cool when being told her life is under threat, meekly returning to a man that used her for however many years.  Weak characterisation is a hallmark of this book.

The implausibility increases as we follow the atheist mafia boss who has inherited a commission made by the Vatican hundreds of years ago to keep their secret hidden and despite actively hating the Church, does his best to do their bidding because,

 ‘We agreed to undertake this many task years ago and my organisation takes its responsibilities seriously.’

 Even more irritating than a plot that hinges far too heavily on coincidences is the heavy and often laboured writing style. There are several instances of long winded explanations in dialogue to hammer home a simple point that was just made in the narrative. For instance, take this scene where Bronson and Mark Hampton discover a shopping list that suggests the late Jackie Hampton had been looking for a Latin dictionary.

‘ “She bought it,” Mark said. “I saw a Latin-Italian dictionary on the bookshelf in the study. I didn’t bother mentioning it because it didn’t seem important. But why would she want a Latin dictionary?”

“Maybe because of this,” Bronson said, holding up a blank sheet of paper. “There’s no writing on either side of this sheet, but when I looked at it I saw faint indentations, as if Jackie had been writing something on another piece of paper on top of this one. There are four letters altogether, printed in block capitals and their reasonably clear. The letters are “H”, “I”, “C” an “V”. Those letters, in that order, are not part of any word that I can think of in English.”….

…..“I think the dictionary Jackie bought might be a clue. I studied Latin, believe it or not, and “HIC” is a Latin word.”  ’ *

Three pages of stilted reasoning later, they come to the conclusion that Jackie bought the dictionary to understand the meaning of a Latin word. Now perhaps I’m wrong but I have always been under the impression that was the main purpose of a dictionary; it really shouldn’t take that long to figure it out. After idiotic incidences like this, Becker expects the reader to believe that his characters have the nuance of reasoning  to uncover the largest, most intricate conspiracy known to the world; a conspiracy that has alluded the most brilliant and skilled people in existence. Ridiculous is the term that comes to mind.

In addition to these gapingly unbelievable plot holes, the author’s use of clunky, awkward and frequent references to brand names is highly suspicious: either Becker is trying to highlight his relevance with contemporary brand names to get down with the groovy kids of today, or he’s being paid to name drop. Why his editor didn’t go to town with the red pen on the following examples, I’ll never know:

‘Finally, he opened the web browser-like most people, the Hamptons had used Internet Explorer…’

‘In the guest bedroom, Chris Bronson booted up his Sony Vaio Laptop.’

The one small saving grace is the action scenes, which have the ring of authenticity about them. Becker’s past life in the Royal Navy can be detected in the detailed hand to hand combat scenes and gun descriptions.

I would only (tentatively) recommend the First Apostle to the staunchest of converts to the religious thriller genre. The seemingly complex plot is revealed to be as simplistic and contrived as the style of writing as the novel progresses. Thrillers are supposed to be built on tension, but it quickly becomes apparent that no matter the minuscule odds for success, the inexplicably multi-talented Bronson will find his way out of every inescapable situation, which destroys any potential anxiety or tension before it has even begun to build. The plot has been seen a dozen times before in various guises. Throw in a free Mason conspiracy and the Knights Templar and the First Apostle could pass as a reference book for modern conspiracy theories.

If you like smart books that keep you on the tip of your toes, avoid at all costs.

*The First Apostle by James Becker. Chapter 8 part 2.