The Magdalene Legacy: The Jesus and Mary Bloodline Conspiracy - Revelations Beyond The Da Vinci Code

Customer Review

The enigmatic Mary Magdalene

This book is in part a critical response to the issues and misconceptions raised by Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' and comes at a time when its subject matter is bemusingly familiar to the public. It is likely that with the current plethora of books and TV documentaries available on the subject; this particular tome might not attract anything like the attention that its fictional counterpart did. More is the pity, as few books on this legendary subject have been so comprehensively researched and so clearly written. Gardner writes with authority and lucidity that other researchers in this field lack. Unlike the writing trio of 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' and 'Messianic Legacy'; he does not bewilder the reader by wandering off on embarrassingly fruitless tangents; nor does he digress into personal romanticisations of his subject as does the author in 'The woman with the alabaster jar'.

Gardner investigates the Magdalene of history and lore as well as her subsequent legacy in European history and art with both scholarly precision (without reading like a dusty academic) and insightful, thought-provoking commentary. If you are looking for a book on Mary Magdalene and the Grail; then this should be the one you choose.