A review of "The Virgin of the Wind Rose; a novel of the End of Times

An adventure/thriller.  No, an historical adventure.  No again, perhaps a double adventure with each story explaining the other.  Even that doesn’t quite capture this book. One tale, set in the late 1400's in Portugal with Henry the Navigator and the Order of Christ at the forefront.  The other set in present day with Jaqueline Quartermane, a strongly religious lawyer. Using facts, both well known and obscure, Author Craney weaves all together albeit not perhaps as seamlessly as one could want.

Starting with the Order of Christ attempting to prevent the Apocalypse the story envisages the melding in of the Knights Templar remnants and their sailing skills.  History tells us that Henry and the Order of Christ trained and sent out into the world, highly trained navigators with mission to find a way to the India by sailing East which required the faith that the tip of Africa could be turned, thus preventing the hated Spaniards from discovering the possibility.  The upshot of this mission, in the book, produces Christopher Columbus who persuades Queen Isabella that the West route would be successful.  Does this religious order know the whereabouts of the thirteen holy instruments taken from the ruins of King Solomon’s Temple and why do they want to bring them together?  In this activity a palindromic square is brought into play as a method of sending messages.

Jaqueline in the present day, goes to Africa to find out why her fiancee was not responding to her calls and emails.  Arriving in Lalibela and descending into the ground to visit the churches dug out there centuries ago, her adventures begin as she unknowingly follows the traces of the Portugese navigators and attempts to solve the cryptography of the 5 x 5 letter square.

A good romp through history and the bringing together of various discoveries that can be explained in several ways or perhaps unexplainable.  But then, that is what these type of novels are supposed to do: reveal hidden truths and provide the discovery of secret mysteries..  And the well written ones leave you with that question in your mind: Could it have been?  An excellent bibliography closes the book.