The
sequel to The Blood Gospel, Innocent Blood, by James
Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell has all the elements of an exciting
novel: adventure, intrigue, suspense, and history, with a
little of the supernatural. This mystery/thriller reunites
the main characters from the previous story: Dr. Erin Granger,
the archeologist, Army Sergeant Jordan Stone, and Father Rhun
Korza, the Sanguinist Knight of Christ. They must continue
their quest this time battling Judas and preventing the Apocalypse.
What enhanced the storyline is the interesting and powerful
characters that are neither all good or all evil. Some of
the characters’ decisions fall into the grey area where
they do not always make the correct choice. Erin Granger has
become a disillusioned archeologist who also questions her
faith due to an incident from her childhood. She is intellectual,
analytical, and a woman of knowledge. Jordan Stone is a soldier
who is physically strong, appears to take everything at face
value, and is very practical. Rhun, is a preacher of faith
and belief whose sole sense of being is imbedded in the Church.
He is a Sanguinist, a vampire-like figure, who has taken a
vow to stop drinking human blood and to sustain himself only
on Christ’s blood, wine consecrated by the Holy Sacrament
into HIS blood. Rollins stated, “In the next book we
break everyone’s banner and the reader sees how the
characters must repair themselves. Basically the three pieces
are: Jordan, the muscle; Erin, the brains; and Rhun the heart.”
The supporting cast also is very well developed. The Blood
Countess, Elizabeth Bathory, a five hundred year old vampire,
a Strigoi, has just been awakened and tries to adjust to living
in the 21st Century. She is strong, independent, and ruthless.
Tommy Bolar is a teenage boy, a very sympathetic character
who, in saving a dove, turns into an Angel. Rollins is hoping
readers will see “Elizabeth as a figure who does horrible
things; yet, after losing her family now tries to re-forge
it with Tommy. The boy was written to be of the Jewish faith
since these stories involve a lot of the Judeo-Christian history,
and after all, Christ was a Jew. There will be more of Tommy’s
storyline in the third book.”
The theme can be explained with the powerful quote in the
book, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil
is that good men do nothing.” Rollins believes that
this quote along with the one from World War II, which he
paraphrased, “First they came for my neighbors, and
then they came for me,” emphasize that being silent
allows evil to exist. “I was influenced by the sacrifice
of the soldiers and their families. We need to continually
not forget that they are our defenders who still put themselves
at risk. Those fighting today volunteered because they did
not want to remain on the sidelines. They are the ones who
make sure evil does not triumph. Just as with the War on Terror
I wanted to show in this book that we have the freedom to
decide our own fate, but we must act on it.”
Innocent Blood includes a lot of action, romance,
and conflict. As in all Rollins’ books the storyline
explores the divide between religion and science. What makes
this book a great mystery is that readers will forget some
of the characters are vampires which makes the story believable.
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