True Raiders: The Untold Story of the 1909 Expedition to Find the Legendary Ark of the Covenant

Award-winning author Brad Ricca tops all his previous work with this page turner about the actual search for the Ark of the Covenant. A secret expedition led by Captain Monty Parker, a British nobleman in the pre-World War One era, sets out with a cypher code to underground tunnels beneath Jerusalem. The search becomes a race against the French banker-financier Baron Edmond de Rothschild, who adds to the narrative all manner of cloak and dagger-style intrigue. Ava Astor, labeled by the press as “the most beautiful woman in the world,” adds just enough highbrow romance to the story, with the posturing of English royalty serving as a backdrop to give it extra flare.

Throughout the entirety of this book, the reader naturally entertains the suspicion that following so much effort and attention, the long-lost treasures of King Solomon’s Temple might well have been found and then spirited away again in secret. The suspense drives you onward through this well-woven historical account that reads more like a thriller novel. In this case, the book is better than the movie.