Nocturnal Book Reviews

*SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD*

The Knowledge of Good and Evil is not a light read and I hesitate to recommend it to everyone. However, it is a book close to my heart. You may say, it all started with Dan Brown, but my husband and I, we love religious thrillers be that books or movies. Stigmata, Konstantine or Dogma, anyone?


Glenn Kleier created a fantastic blend: a thriller full of race against time, a mystery hidden in time, a journey around the world and beyond mortal realm. There is also huge amount of research involved and very helpful corresponding with each chapter pictures which you can find on author's website.

Ian Baringer is an ex-priest who got so disappointed in divine paradox: how God could be all knowing and all-loving, and yet let such evil be in the world? that he had to leave the Catholic Church. After being praised as a hero who saved a lot of African kids, he retires and becomes a paranormal investigator on a small scale radio where he meets his future fiancee, clever and gorgeous psychologist, Angela Weber.

However, in his search for internal peace he stumbles into a work of another priest who wrote that he experienced Ultimate Reality which if known to the world will stop all religious wars and truly make people see that God exists. Sadly the priest dies mysteriously only hours before he is ready to give his speech.

Ian's research shows that the priest's revelations happened when he had a near death experience (NDE) and crossed to the other side. Ian just inherited a large sum of money and he is obsessed with seeing his parents who died protecting him when he was a little boy, so he throws his fortune into repeating an NDE in a controlled environment, and things he sees lead to a chain reaction where not only an ancient order of warriors of God is after him for attempting to uncover the mysteries of the afterlife, but the beings he sees in his NDE want something from him as well.

The whole book is a mad race where both Angela and Ian keep running away from the order and uncovering old secrets be that in Vatican or sacred places in India, Austria or Venice, and it get more and more surreal the longer you stick with it.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Knowledge of Good and Evil and I'm glad that it ends with a question mark, so we all can make our own conclusions out if it. Fantastic read which provides plenty of food for thought.