NEW THRILLER CHALLENGES EVANGELICAL VIEW OF BIBLE

NAPLES, FLORIDA -- In his latest thriller, The Identity Factor, Kansas-born, Australia-based novelist James Houston Turner has taken issue with the commonly held evangelical view about the origin of Genesis. "Traditionally credited to Moses, Genesis is actually a collection of more ancient documents," says Turner, who holds a Master's Degree in History from the University of Houston Clear Lake, where he uncovered what he describes as the key to one of the oldest mysteries of the Bible: the use of colophons in Genesis. By comparing Genesis to other ancient Near Eastern documents such as "The Code of Hammurabi" and "Epic of Gilgamesh," Turner says Genesis divides itself naturally into separate historical documents, with the author of each document identified in its colophon.

And this is where Turner's research provides the basis for an explosive geopolitical thriller. In The Identity Factor, he creates a fictional stone tablet that would have been the source document for the seventh section of Genesis. According to its colophon – an identifying phrase about the author, which, according to ancient literary practice would come at the end of the document – the seventh section was written by Ishmael, founding father of the Arab nations. In Turner’s fictional tablet, just as it actually occurs in the book of Genesis, Ishmael records the Promised Land being given by Abraham to Isaac and his descendants, the Jews.

The Identity Factor opens with the discovery of the tablet by British archaeologist Sir Edmund Clayton in the Sinai Peninsula in 1919. Clayton is then murdered and the tablet disappears, only to resurface in modern-day Cairo, where the CIA learns the phantom terrorist, Abu Nazer, plans to steal it. Because the tablet could detonate war between the Arabs and Jews over the ownership of Palestine, the CIA is understandably keen to identify and stop Abu Nazer.

Says Turner: "I knew I was walking a tightrope when I wrote The Identity Factor. What I didn’t want to do is inflame an already contentious issue about the ownership of the most hotly-contested piece of real estate on earth. So I sent a review copy to Rabbi David Rosen in Jerusalem. Rabbi Rosen is Chairman of IJCIC - the International Jewish Committee that represents world Jewry in its relations with other world religions. He is also an International President of the World Conference of Religions for Peace. Here is what he had to say: 'Dear James. I enjoy a good thriller when I get the opportunity. Your entertaining book has a hopeful, reconciliatory subtext and I applaud your spirit. I am sure you have considered it, but I think it would make a very good movie.'"

Turner’s goal has always been to write “novels with soul,” as he calls them...thrillers of action and suspense that also communicate positive values like grace and second chances. Maybe that's because Turner himself – a cancer survivor - is a living example of the second chance. After the removal of a malignant tumor the size of an orange from his jaw, he was told if he lived eighteen months, he would probably live to be 100. "That was in 1991,” he says, “so I am happy to report I am well on my way toward that goal.”

The author's complete story can be found on www.jameshoustonturner.com.

Aria Publishers
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Author website: www.jameshoustonturner.com
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Aria Publishers is a boutique publisher of fiction. Located in South Australia, our markets are North America and Australia.

This release was published on openPR.