ProWriting Aid Editor

Writing Improvement Software

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Book Review Scroll Back


GINGER'S SPICE
Flavored Reviews 
by Ginger Gelsheimer

Scroll Back
by Jay and Steven Stamatis



Click here to purchase Scroll Back!










5 Stars!!!!

Time Travel, Conspiracy and Murder! Scroll Back packs a suspenseful punch!

Brief synopsis: Scroll Back takes us on an epic journey through the eyes of anthropologist, Peter Mandes, who has been lucky enough to assist his mentor, Professor Alex Mostovolov, with what could be the most significant discovery in the history of the world. Alex comes upon a folio from the Thomas Gospel in an excavation site in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. Hidden coordinates lead him to the Dead Sea where he finds another scroll wrapped in animal skin. The painful deciphering process ultimately reveals Time Travel secrets imbedded in a Key Scroll hidden in Mexican pyramids.

The 20-year search culminates with a final journey to Mexico’s Pyramid of the Sun with Peter. Aware of the historic nature of Alex’s research, Nick Parseconis, an agent of a global brotherhood, is bent on acquiring the Scroll, and they will do anything, including murder in order to get it. Nick plays the good guy and funds Alex’s research, but reports his progress to the brotherhood, shaping his own agenda.

Steeped with intrigue, cruelty, deception and murder, the story delivers a heart-stopping succession of riveting scenes that cry out for a broader outcome: to reconnect people with their Creator.

Trapped between the unfolding tension for the priceless Scroll and his own spiritual struggle to discover God, Peter focuses on validating his faith as he uncovers the path to Time Travel. He launches a journey through Time that blends the unimagined with the real.


Characters: The writers did a great job with Peter Mandes, the main character who tells the story to his “nephew” Nelson, Jr., the son of a friend who had died in a terrible accident, but with time travel...could he still be alive? Because we travel through various times of Peter’s life, we really get to know him and understand him as he questions many things about his own religious beliefs versus the facts that he discovers though his travels, facts that many want to keep buried, including his former mentors from the Church, who refuse to believe the story of Jesus might have been different. I enjoyed the depth of the Nick Parseconis, a great bad guy who always manages to show up at the worst times for Peter and Alex, and who never works in their favor, throwing money at them only to beat them to the punch.

Originality: Though there are certainly other stories out there that feature time travel, scrolls, conspiracy and mystery, Scroll Back intertwines the elements into a highly original story! I enjoyed the adventure that Peter takes to find the truth of the origins, finding himself locked in a prison with John the Baptist, just before his execution; diving with man-eating sharks that disappear into the darkness of the Bermuda Triangle; and searching through the mysterious pyramids of Egypt, always seconds away from danger.

Recommendation: I would pare this with a glass of red wine for obvious reasons! Scroll Back is a fantastic story, with a concept so well written, one might even believe it. Highly recommend.


-Ginger

p.s. If you enjoyed this post, please click the g+1 button below or reshare so that others may enjoy it too!