cover image Custodians of Truth: The Continuance of Rex Deus

Custodians of Truth: The Continuance of Rex Deus

Tim Wallace-Murphy, Marilyn Hopkins, . . Weiser, $22.95 (268pp) ISBN 978-1-57863-323-4

In this second collaboration, Wallace-Murphy and Hopkins continue a quest begun in their first work, Rex Deus . This similarly themed sophomore effort finds them making a case for identifying the Holy Grail as the bloodline of Jesus Christ and portraying subsequent efforts to protect that lineage throughout history. They claim to have been contacted by a man known only as Michael, who claims to be a descendant of Jesus Christ and a custodian of the secret of the Grail. To support their thesis, the authors recast biblical history as a vast coverup, an ingenious story concocted by priests and plotters. They continue with a narrative of church and state conspiring to maintain the secret of the Grail, beginning with the early church, through the Middle Ages and finally to the present day. To accept the authors' premise, one must consent to the idea of a massive coverup, a cabal involving church, various governments and science. Furthermore, one must agree that Jesus survived the crucifixion and lived on to raise his children and produce a family line. Drawing heavily from known secondary sources, this book offers little that is new, but rather a rehash of much that has already been published and has been heavily popularized through the novel The Da Vinci Code . It does, however, provide a readable—if fervent—overview of this controversial theory. (June)