Blood Quest

Claude Brickell is an author of international mystery suspense. His Art Sleuth Mysteries series follows young, likable and accomplished art historian Michael Bennington as he searches the world for lost or stolen art and artifacts that, more often than not, land him in thrilling and provocative, and even erotic encounters, that only Bennington's quirky escapades can do. The following is one such installment: This modern-day mystery follows art historian Michael Bennington as he investigates the potential cloning of Christ. Legend has it, while removing Jesus' body from the cross, Joseph of Aramathia collected a sample of the prophet's blood which was then transferred to a vial and sealed with wax. The artifact is detailed in an ancient document from the 1200s and the clue to its whereabouts, translated from the Latin, states: sacred blood in sacred image lies. The Vatican believes the sacred image refers to an icon which disappeared soon after the document's mention of it. Fast forward to the present and there are at least six venerated icons throughout Christendom purported to be the one lost. It is Bennington's task, along with his co-accomplice Sophia Politano, an alluring young curator from the Vatican Museum, to locate the vial before a sinister Jesuit fraternity within the Vatican finds it first. This fraternity's unscrupulous aim is to use the contents to clone an exact copy-body and blood-of Jesus Christ and, with this individual, one day contest the papal throne.