Very typical thriller, very tropey and with pedestrian prose. Some of the dialogue was almost cliche-like in its predictability. That being said, the history was interesting, and I do enjoy an archaeological relic hunt. The story moved almost too fast, with very little emphasis on the mystery of the stones. The antagonists were barely sketched out. I always wonder why someone wants to destroy the world. And after a while the action felt repetitive, as the characters search for the individual Apostles' stones. Despite all my quibbles, i still kept reading. So there's that. Undecided whether I'll read another in this series. ( )

Truly a brillant opening...
the reader is taken to places we only dream of, and chased by people who visit our nightmares. Very suspensful, lots of action. Looking forward to reading more of Joanna Penn. ( )

Wanted to like this book, the characters were interesting but the plot was a davinci code rehash without the interesting codes; and I didn't like the davinci code all that much. ( )

GOODNESS, BUT I LOVED THIS BOOK! I felt sorry for Morgan who had lost her dad and then her husband had been killed in a never ending war. Now, back to safety after retiring from the military, she was back at Oxford University teaching. When her office is attacked her military training kicked in and it was kill or be killed. I liked Jake but I was leery of him as well both Morgan and Jake had issues to resolve but with her sister and young niece abducted from their home and a bargain to find and trade the Twelve Apostle's Stones for their lives had both Jake and Morgan flying allover with ARKIANE's help to find the missing stones. Book one is filled with twist ad turns that keep the pair hopping, and I AM SO READY TO READ BOOK 2!! ( )

During the first Pentecost, each of the disciples were given a stone, which they carried to the ends of the known world imbued with supernatural power of healing and persuasion through the passage of a comet which appeared during Jesus's resurrection. Two groups are interested in gathering the twelve stones together for each group's nefarious purposes before the next Pentecost since the same comet will be above the Earth at that time. Holders of the stones are being killed for the stones they are protecting.

Oxford University psychology professor and former Israeli soldier Morgan Sierra and her twin sister each possess one of the stones given to them by their father. When Morgan's sister and niece are taken hostage by one of the two groups, she agrees to collect the stones in exchange for the hostages. Assisting in this effort by Jake Timber, an agent of ARCANE, a British governmental agency specializing in the paranormal and religious experience. As the two travel from Armenia to Spain to Jerusalem, etc., their efforts are being thwarted by others who don't want the two to gather the stones. Morgan is also being warned that ARCANE's purposes may not be noble either.

Morgan Sierra is a female cross between Indiana Jones and Dan Brown's Robert Langdon. I found it interesting that the protagonist was the stronger of twins who is seeking the stones to rescue her sister while the antagonist is the stronger of twins who is seeking the stones to heal his schizophrenic brother. Although I thought the narrator of this fun read adequately portrayed the various characters, I thought her rate of speech too fast during time of non-suspenseful narration. I kept expecting suspense when it was actually lulls in the story. ( )