About the Book
Set in modern Jerusalem and among the desert ruins of Qumran, this desperate hunt for an ancient treasure scroll pits a female Israeli intelligence agent against a religious fanatic hell-bent on bringing about the End of Days.
An American professor’s murder reveals his discovery of a lost Dead Sea Scroll, whose text encodes the secret hiding places of the lost Second Temple Treasures. Israeli intelligence agent Maya Rimon races against time to stop a religious extremist from launching a deadly terrorist attack at the next Blood Moon, triggering the Apocalypse in the holy city of Jerusalem.
The story centers around a genuine historical artifact, the so-called Copper Scroll, whose many secrets still remain undeciphered by contemporary scholars and treasure hunters. Despite decades of searching, not a single one of these invaluable treasures has ever been found.
Laced with clever spycraft, encrypted electronic files, mysterious ancient puzzles, plastique explosives, car chases, and Sherlockian ratiocination, The Deadly Scrolls explores the timely theme of fanaticism: among Christian millennialists, Jewish messianists, Islamic terrorists, Israeli politicians, Orthodox Jews, conspiracy theorists, devout Zionists—and spies. In other words, it’s a Jewish Da Vinci Code!
About the Author :
Dr. Ellen Frankel served for eighteen years as Editor in Chief and CEO of The Jewish Publication Society. She received her BA from the University of Michigan and her PhD in Comparative Literature from Princeton University.
She is the author of fourteen books, among them The Classic Tales; The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols; and The Five Books of Miriam. Her JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible won a National Jewish Book Award. In 2023, she won the Jewish Book Council’s Mentorship Award.
She has written librettos for chamber pieces with various composers, including two operas: Slaying the Dragon with Michael Ching, and The Triangle Fire with Leonard Lehrman.
Frankel is currently working on The Jerusalem Mystery Series featuring Israeli intelligence agent Maya Rimon. The Deadly Scrolls and The Hyena Murders were published in 2022.
Frankel lives in Sarasota and Maine with her husband, Herb Levine.
Review :
"Whilst taking the reader through the amazing geography of the desert ruins of Qumran and modern Jerusalem and weaving together ancient and modern elements of religion, archaeology, politics, fundamentalism and more, the book explores the important theme of fanaticism across various religious and political divides.
I also loved the female lead character—Maya who must balance her complex life of working in Israeli intelligence whilst being a single mother fighting a custody battle over her daughter. She is intelligent and steadfast, refusing to give up despite multiple challenges.
Ellen Frankel's years of scholarship in Jewish texts really shine through in this book—a Jewish Da Vinci Code!"
"Readers will sail through the book, the first of a planned series, turning page after page with gusto, following Maya Rimon in her quest. We are rooting for her, but so much is against her that we can't be sure. There are car crashes, mysterious puzzles, electronic encryptions. She wins, then loses, then wins again, pursuing a kaleidoscopic quest that shimmers and sparkles from afar, yet draws the reader toward the climax with each dangerous step Maya Rimon takes.
While The Deadly Scrolls connects the first century with the twenty-first century, the book additionally explores a number of contemporary themes not usually found in mystery thrillers, such as single motherhood and competition between female agents. The narration explores many types of zealotry, such as political, ideological, and religious zealotry.
Frankel is the author of ten books and three operas; The Deadly Scrolls demonstrates how she has successfully melded her academic expertise with her experience as a Jewish storyteller to segue into the field of mystery writing. Future books in her series, The Jerusalem Mysteries, will be anxiously awaited."
"This story has all the right ingredients: a couple of murders, a harrowing car chase, guns and explosives, an unscrupulous Arab antiquities dealer, crazed Christian millennialists, Jewish Messianists, hardboiled police officers and brave but flawed security agents, some professional rivalries, a romance, a plot to blow up the Temple Mount, and a search for the looted Second Temple treasures by using clues from a not yet found Dead Sea Scroll...The Deadly Scrolls is a genuine page-turner and it's obvious Frankel did her homework on the Dead Sea Scrolls...the book was a pleasure to read—in Frankel's words, 'a mystery packed with history'—and I look forward to the next volume in Frankel's Jerusalem Mysteries series, due out in November."
“In this thriller, Ellen Frankel has created a fine cast of Jerusalem types––corrupt antiquities hawkers, end-of-days preachers, scholars of the obscure past, and lost innocents abroad––but the true star is her detective, daring intelligence agent and conflicted single mom Maya Rimon. You won't stop turning the page.”
“An exciting thriller from which one can learn a tremendous amount about the world of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the academic community that researches them.”
