Review

What, exactly, was The Holy Grail? Thirty million readers found one possible answer in The DaVinci Code. Now, in their debut novel, Stonecypher Road, authors Warren and Nancy Longwell have offered up a different and far more sinister version of one of the world’s most enduring enigmas. Writing in a refreshingly literate style, the new novelists take their readers on a quest to understand an ancient relic, The Stonecypher, uncovered in western Utah.

 
When the artifact reveals itself to hold an encoded prophecy that might unlock religious harmony in the Middle East, the husband and wife protagonists embark on a journey to put the icon into the hands of the government -- a journey that will take them to the great museums of Manhattan, and into subterranean tunnels under New York City where the mole people give them a taste of first contact with a dark society.

Blended with the mystery & thriller plot in Stonecypher Road is a secondary story about what it means to lose a mother, and to confront the poverty of one’s own childhood. The Longwells weave these two narratives together so skillfully that the reader never knows for sure what part is fiction and what part might be true.