Setting: Istanbul, Turkey
Time Period: Modern Day

Archaeological digs. Dangerous religious discoveries. A whirlwind trek around the world. That’s The Constantine Codex in a nutshell. Professor Jonathan Weber and his wife, Shannon find a rather authentic codex that leads them to believe they found a missing piece of the Bible…and it sets the religious world on edge. Combine that with a typo in Professor Weber’s new book that causes friction in the Muslim world and you have the beginning of this couples  adventures in Turkey.

As promising as this story line was, it wasn’t my favorite read this year. Don’t get me wrong, it had it’s good spots, but wasn’t as fast paced as I would have liked it to be. Some chapters were really great and exciting, but then some chapters lagged. It was like the story would stop and go. That’s the bad part. But in it’s defense, there are some good things I can say I enjoyed about the book. For one, there was a big surprise at the end about who the real bad guy was. I like those kinds of surprises! Also, there was some great information about the difference between Christianity and the Muslim faith. A lot of the arguments I heard before, but it was a good refresher. I also enjoyed the plot about the codex (aka for old, old manuscript) itself. Maybe a little unbelievable at times, but fun considering the story line.

Every so often, someone will go on a Facebook group looking for book recommendations that would interest men. The Constantine Codex is a book I would put in that category. For one, it’s written by a male author with a male lead. (Which may be one of the reasons I didn’t connect with the story.) Secondly, even though it’s fiction, it’s very academic. In one place, a whole chapter is dedicated to a debate between main Professor Weber and a Muslim professor. Good information to randomly run across, but a little heavy if all you’re interested in is a good story.

Conclusion: This book sits right in the middle of not being a bad read, but not being a great one either if you’re not a fan of the genre. However, that’s just my personal taste in fiction talking, so if you read more about the book and want to give it a try, I wouldn’t discourage you from doing so. Keep in mind it’s very academic, has a hint of suspense in places and doesn’t have any romance – which I know will be a boon for some! For folks who love international settings, I’ll quickly mention that most of the book is set between Turkey and the US, with very little at the beginning set in Greece.