Splintered Icon (Mass Market Paperback)

There are many similarities between "Splintered Icon" and "The Da Vinci Code". The story is very fast-moving, the hero and heroine are well-educated people with specialized historical knowledge, and the plot is based on events that happened long ago. The history of the Catholic Church is involved, and there is even a mention of Opus Dei, the religious organization that is featured in "The Da Vinci Code".

In "Splintered Icon" Harry (the hero) and Zola (the heroine) have to decode an encrypted 400-year-old journal in order to find a religious relic (the "icon"). Of course, there are also some really nasty bad guys trying to steal the journal and using violence to force Harry and Zola to turn the journal over to them. Later, when Harry and Zola are getting close to finding the relic, the bad guys get even nastier.

There are actually two stories in "Splintered Icon". One is the here-and-now story about Harry, Zola and the bad guys. The other is the 400-year-old story told by the journal, describing an expedition from England to The New World, an expedition shrouded in secrecy and full of conflicts. The journal tells an exciting story and gives clues about the religious relic that was hidden/lost 400 years ago.

When I started the book I was swept along by the fast-paced action and was enjoying the idea of an encrypted 400-year-old journal. But as I continued reading I realized that the story was not very believable. By the time I got to the end I could see holes in the plot that were big enough to drive a bus through.

For example, Harry and Zola have been attacked several times by the bad guys, and then they realize that a new member of their group is probably not who he claims to be. But they ignore this information and continue to blunder onwards as if they don't care!

Another example: By the time one gets to the end of the book it becomes obvious that the bad guys could not possibly have known that the 400-year-old journal told about an important religious relic. This makes the whole story crazy - why did the bad guys try to steal the journal and try to force Harry and Zola to give it up?

A final problem is that the characters in this book (like in a Dan Brown book) are not at all believable. In particular, Harry and Zola come across as pretty silly, in an amusing way, but do not resemble real people.

In conclusion, if you're willing to totally suspend your disbelief and go along for the ride then "Splintered Icon" is lots of fun. But if a plot that doesn't make sense and characters that are fairly two-dimensional reduce your enjoyment of a book then you should look elsewhere.

Rennie Petersen

PS. "Splintered Icon" is the USA title. The original UK title of this book is "Shattered Icon".