Book review: The Paradise Prophecy by Robert Browne

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Description:
When God cast the archangel Satan into Hell, ending the War in Heaven, peace prevailed on Earth. Until the fallen angels took revenge in the Garden of Eden. Ever since, mankind has been in a struggle between good and evil, paradise and apocalypse: the fall of Rome, The Crusades, World Wars, nuclear proliferation, the Middle East Crisis... The War in Heaven never really ended-it just changed venues. For millennia, God's angels have been fighting Satan's demons on Earth, all in hopes of bringing about Satan's greatest ambition, the Apocalypse.

The Reality

Satan has never been closer to his goal than right now.

Agent Bernadette Callahan is a talented investigator at a shadowy government organization known only as Section, on the trail of a serial killer with nearly supernatural abilities. Sebastian "Batty" LaLaurie is a religious historian who knows far too much about the other side- and that hard-earned knowledge is exactly what Callahan needs. This unlikely duo pair up for a race across the globe, decoding clues left in ancient texts from the Bible to Paradise Lost and beyond. In the process they stumble upon a vast conspiracy-one beyond the scope of mankind's darkest imagination.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Review:
I have only heard of Milton's Paradise Lost and have never read it myself, but if it's anything like The Paradise Prophecy, then I'm interested in reading it. I don't know how much of what was said of Milton was accurate in the novel, but I'll take it on blind faith because The Paradise Prophecy was damn entertaining regardless of historical accuracy.

If, like me, you're a fan of The Da Vinci Code and other books about Biblical prophecies, secret societies, and the end of the world, then The Paradise Prophecy is for you. I found the book to have a good balance of controversial theories, exciting plot lines, and interesting characters. Although I didn't agree with all of the religious views expressed by the author, I was able to put my bias aside and treat this as a work of fiction, something I often have to do when reading books in this genre.

As a thriller, The Paradise Prophecy fulfills its goals. There were very few dull moments in this 400-page book. The story moves between different characters and story lines, but I rarely felt lost or confused. In the end, of course, all of the story lines converge to provide readers with a satisfying conclusion.