The Einstein Prophecy

It’s 1944. The Allies are pushing the Germans out of France when Lt. Lucas Athan, an OSS cultural recovery expert, is ordered to retrieve an ancient Egyptian ossuary looted by the Nazis when they occupied North Africa. Athan recovers the artifact but loses an eye in a booby-trap explosion.

Discharged from the army, Athan returns to his art history professorship at Princeton University where he discovers the same ossuary has been taken for study. The OSS wants him to discover why the Nazis and, in particular, Adolf Hitler, were so interested in an ancient box of bones. Athan is joined by Simone Rashid, a beautiful French-Egyptian archeologist who was one of the original discoverers of the ossuary, which purportedly holds the bones of St. Anthony of Egypt.

When the researchers open the bone box, they unwittingly release a demonic force once tamed by St. Anthony at the cost of his own life. Now it is left to Lucas and Simone to defeat that evil before it can spread its malevolence across a world already wracked by war and, in the process, destroy one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, Albert Einstein.

Author Robert Masello’s novel, The Einstein Prophecy, is a well-written, character-driven tale of horror. Masello foregoes the boo-factor to concentrate on developing believable people–including a wonderful depiction of Einstein–who propel the story forward. However, that’s not to say the plot isn’t action oriented. This story offers the best of both archeology adventure and horror genres.

A treasure hunting, adventure story, with some conspiracy thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately it did lag a bit here and there, but that is by no means as a deterrent. It was a fun read. I loved the history threaded through the fiction.

The Einstein Prophecy is a mystery book that never lags. Filled with prophecies of an apocalyptic world it takes place during one of the darkest times in history, World War II.
Exploring early Patristic (theological) literature an Egyptian archeologist, Dr. Rashid, spends his life in pursuit of St. Anthony of Egypt’s tomb. Legends abound about St. Anthony’s fight to the death with a demon that threatened mankind. Doctor Rashid’s beautiful, brilliant, daughter, Simone, also a doctor of archeology, and he discover the ossuary (sarcophagus) in a desert cave. The ossuary is supposed to contain St. Anthony’s remains. Before they ever get the chance to open the ossuary, it is confiscated in 1941 by General Rommel, Hitler’s general, who took over the Desert War. Rommel sends the ossuary to Germany at Hitler’s request. When the tide begins to turn on Germany in 1943 the stolen treasures of art and archeology that were destined for German museums and private collections end up being stashed in mining tunnels and caves. The US Government, famously created the Monument Men, a group of art professors to find and repatriate the stolen treasures of Europe, Egypt, etc., which were to be returned after the war.
The ossuary and its contents for some reason held special interest to Hitler and because of that special interest, it becomes the focus of the OSS. So starts an adventure that bears a similarity to the Legend of the Lost Ark. Remember how the Nazis desperately chased after the Ark which they believed held the power to rule the world. In this instance, the power of the contents of the ossuary is malignant and evil and could destroy the world. Untimely deaths and strange occurrences surround the ancient relic, beginning with the young Egyptian guide who assisted Professor Rashid and his daughter Simone in finding the sarcophagus. He was overwhelmed and killed by bats in the hidden cave in the White Sand desert, a horrifying death.
Professor Lucas Athan, serving as a Lieutenant in the army, assigned to the Cultural Recovery Commission (Monument Men) is commissioned by the OSS (forerunner to the CIA) to find the ossuary. In a salt mine in Alsace he and his aide, Private Toussaint, nearly lose their lives when a bomb explodes just as they discover the ancient sarcophagus. Lucas loses his eye, Toussaint, his leg, and a child is blown up. Lucas, wounded and decorated for his service returns to his former position at Princeton University. Meanwhile, the ossuary now in the possession of the OSS journeys to America on a Red Cross ship carrying wounded to America.
Simone Rashid and her father, hot on the trail, are determined to return the ossuary to its rightful home in Egypt. They risk life and limb on a dangerous ocean crossing where the Red Cross ship containing the ossuary is hit and nearly sunk by German U-boats. Miraculously, or more likely because of its evil contents, the ship containing the ossuary makes it to New York.
The ossuary, Lucas, Simone and her father all end up at Princeton, where the OSS has conscripted Lucas into a top-secret commission of studying and opening the ossuary. The OSS is determined to find out why this artifact is so important to Hitler.
Coincidentally, across the street from Lucas’s boarding house lives Professor Albert Einstein, who is secretly engaged by Robert Oppenheimer to help in the development of the Atomic bomb. Oppenheimer is busy working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico and turns to his friend Einstein to help expedite, and iron out the wrinkles that are hindering the bomb’s development. The race is on to beat the Nazi’s in their quest to build the bomb and to end the war with Japan.
Now the book really gets interesting. The forces of evil are unleashed when the ossuary is opened, which is highly symbolic of not only The Third Reich and their evil deeds, but the philosophical fine line that is presented by the creation of a weapon that could literally fulfill biblical prophecy and bring on the apocalypse.
Einstein is plagued by his fears of developing a weapon of mass destruction. Einstein was a pacifist and an atheist, however, it was WWII and the evil of Nazism that soon persuaded him to entertain, if not embrace the Allied quest to win the war, and the spiritual imperative that the forces of good must overcome and eradicate the forces of evil. WWII brought Einstein back to the fold, so to speak, he found his spirituality and belief in, if not God, then at least a universal power of creation that is divine. This book addresses all of these questions in an exciting thriller, that is well written, positively entertaining, historically informed, and impossible to put down.
The building of a romance between Simone and Lucas is like the icing on a cake and provides the happy ever after ending that we as readers look forward to receiving.

I know a lot of people didn’t enjoy this book, but I did. It’s like a combination of Indiaa Jones, Monuments Men, and Dan Brown with soe paranormal thrown in. It’s engrossing and fun, kind of what you’s expect from a thriller. No, the history isn’t 100% accurate but who cares? It’s a novel, not a textbook. Enjoy!

“…so far he had see nothing that resembled the ossuary he had been dispatched to find.”
“They’d been impressed enough when he first got the job at Princeton—what would they do when they found out that Einstein, one of the most celebrated people in the whole world, was his neighbor?”
Combine Raiders of the Lost Ark with The Mummy, add Einstein, then you will have a notion of what The Einstein Prophecy is like.
While some of the plot is “been there, read or saw that before” still this is an enjoyable read for adventure readers.

Mystery. Adventure.

This review can be found at: Le Coeur de l’Artiste http://www.djadamson.com/le-coeur-de-lartiste

its ok, nothing that really wowed me

Hoped it would be like a Dan Brown book but the author has a way to go. It was engaging enough to want to finish it.

very good book

Why was Hitler after strange and occult.Makes you wonder if there was a basis for his determination !

Good story, a blend of fiction and history. I really enjoyed this book.