The Lost Codex

Written by Alan Jacobson

Narrated by Jeff Harding

In 930 CE, a revered group of scholars pen the first sanctioned Bible, planting the seed from which other major religions will grow. But in 1953, half the manuscript goes missing while being transported from Syria. Around the same time, in the foothills of the Dead Sea, an ancient scroll is discovered—and promptly stolen. Six decades later, both parchments stand at the heart of a geopolitical battle between foreign governments and radical extremists, threatening the lives of millions. With the American homeland under siege, the president turns to a team of uniquely trained covert operatives, their mission: Find the stolen documents and capture—or kill—those responsible for unleashing a coordinated and unprecedented terrorist attack on US soil.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media Audio
• Release date: Jul 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781520033457

Alan Jacobson

Alan Jacobson is the national bestselling author of the critically acclaimed FBI profiler Karen Vail and OPSIG Team Black series. Jacobson’s years of extensive research and training while embedded with federal and local law enforcement agencies have influenced him both personally and professionally, and have helped shape the stories he tells and the diverse characters that populate his novels.

Reviews for The Lost Codex

[shetreadssoftly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Lost Codex by Alan Jacobson is a highly recommended international political thriller.

The novel opens decades earlier with the unearthing of a new Dead Sea Scroll that is hinted at being world-religion-changing, the action switches to the present day and terrorists are targeting Washington. D.C.. After a bombing (and it's more complicated than that) members of the Operations support Intelligence Group (OPSIG) are called into action. The group is a team of uniquely trained covert operatives and includes FBI profiler Karen Vail (featured in another series by Jacobson), Special Forces veteran Hector DeSantos, and FBI terrorism expert Aaron Uziel.

The team discovers that there is a terrorist cell making personal vest bombs for suicide bombers. As they uncover and break up the cell in D.C., they discover more information that points to a host of other international terrorist plots that somehow tie into the ancient scrolls, two of which have gone missing. The team is asked to work with former Palestinian Mahmoud El-Fahad of the CIA, but they aren't sure they can trust him. Their search takes them to New York, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv.

The Lost Codex is really more of a political thriller with terrorists rather than a concentrated focus on the information in the ancient codex. Setting that aside, it is an outstanding tactical thriller with plenty of action. I need to warn readers that it starts out fast and then slows down as Jacobson needs to impart a whole lot of background information before moving on to the action. This information is essential to the story and covers terrorist activity. (Jacobson did his research so much of the background information he provides is true.)

Jacobson is a seasoned writer so he knows how to tell a story while keeping the plot moving and the reader's interest high. I appreciate the research he did to realistically cover terrorist activity. The Lost Codex is a great stuck-over-night-at-the-airport book. The action should keep you awake - once you get past the slow down due to the background information (get coffee here). Then there is nonstop action and enough tension to entertain you for hours. Even though this is part of a series, it works as a stand-alone novel.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Open Road Integrated Media for review purposes.

[delta61 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"The Lost Codex," is an action adventure novel by Alan Jacobson. It is a book I won on Goodreads. It seems aimed at male and female readers. There is some violence, but not an overabundance. It tries to mime "Sigma Force," but falls short. The title "Lost Codex," could refer to its location in he book. Mentioned in the Prologue, it then disappears for the next 30% of the book. During this 30% hiatus, there was a long winded explanation of the motives and workings of a suicide bomber given to heads of Homeland, CIA, NSA, and FBI. I'm sure these gentlemen have sufficient knowledge of suicide bombers. It seems unnecessary, making the book long.Being used to my Kindle, I found the printing small. The book has short chapters making it easy to stop reading. I thought the book had too many characters, the Arab names confusing. After 40%, the story seemed to get back on track and live up more to its hype. From then on, it was continual action. I found the ending nothing to get excited about - the author looking for a way to finish it of.

[aztwinmom · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Lost Codex is a thriller adventure ride into the world of Arab extremism, jihads, political and religious factions. An ancient scroll contains information that could damage Christianity and upset any chance of a peaceful Pelestinian-Israeli peace settlement. Karen Vail of the FBI is tossed into the middle of this dangerous situation and covert operations. A fast-paced adventure, this story is timely...and scary.

[dokfintong · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I find that I simply cannot read these Karen Vail books and I gave up at about 10%. Terrible dialogue, no attention paid to military or police protocols. No realism. Sorry.I received a review copy of "The Lost Codex" by Alan Jacobson (Open Road) through NetGalley.com.

[pamelabarrett · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The United States is under attack by terrorists, and an elite team of Special Agents has been put together to find the leaders and eliminate the threat. The team is made up of four people with specific training and backgrounds: there is FBI terrorism expert Uzi whose background was with Israel’s Mossad, and Karen Vail an FBI profiler, and Hector Santos a Special Forces veteran, and then there is Mohammad El-Fahad or Mo, a Palestinian working for the CIA. Understandably, Uzi doesn’t trust him—and trust is crucial in this mission. Innocent lives are at stake, and there is a missing document called the Aleppo Codex which was found in 1953 in an archaeological site containing the Dead Sea Scrolls. Every government, religion, and terrorist organization wants to have possession of it, because its worth is unfathomable and its words could change Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Alan Jacobson writes this like an action movie, lots of fast moving dialogue, short chapters, and explosive action scenes taking place in a multitude of countries. My only complaint is that I wanted to take a breath and look around at the great places the team went to, but I guess when you are on a mission there’s no time to dawdle. I didn’t see the plot twist at the end and that twist made me sad because it seemed too true to life in the U.S. today. The author was able to shed some light on the complex issues facing Israel and the world we live in now. 4 stars.

[itzey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

August 6, 1953
The West Bank, Jordan
An Israeli member of the Mossad is serving undercover as a translator on a Catholic archaeological dig in Bedouin territory near the Dead Sea. An ancient scroll is discovered that portends to change religious history. And it disappears.

I snap to attention thinking, "This Prologue is powerful!

Flashing forward in time, familiar characters from earlier Jacobson's works are all brought back together for a Black Ops mission so secret even they weren't told about it.
•FBI profiler Karen Vail
•DOD covert operative Hector Santos
•FBI terrorism expert Aaron “Uzi” Uziel

A new character, Mahmoud El-Fahad, a Palestinian CIA Operative, is added to the team providing internal drama. With real-life flareups in the Middle East, this novel has all the elements to capture the attention of the reader and educate about the disparate issues complicating a peace treaty between Israel and Palestine.
Additionally, the mysterious Codex is a tantalizing tease. Ever present is a sense that the missing Codex has a significant role to play in the Black Ops Mission.

Unfortunately the book doesn't pull these threads together smoothly. The alphabet soup common to the military and intelligence agencies is overpowering to the uninitiated reader. The promise of learning that world religions could be profoundly affected by some ancient document hangs in the air with little or no reference for over half of the book. When Uzi and El-Fahad provide background on their cultures right in the middle of some interview or violent scene, it felt like the characters paused, faced the reader and gave a scripted history lesson. It stopped the action and made me lose track of what was happening in the story.

FBI profiler Karen Vail's ridiculous mental asides appearing all through the book felt weird and made her seem an unlikely member of a black ops team. It diminished the seriousness of her professional work. Actually she seemed rather unnecessary to tell the truth.

The Lost Codex (the Aleppo Codex) remained lost through most of the book. Now and again a thimbleful of text referred to it. I kept waiting for the Team Black to eventually lead to the Aleppo Code and reveal what the scroll said that would change the world. Instead the story seemed to head in all directions that had me wondering if all Black Ops teams and their Superiors are as unmoored as this group. It might have been a better book to have just focused on the terrorists and the Middle East.

When, almost as an aside, the Codex is found and the deep secret is revealed, it felt anti-climatic. The secret had the potential to rock the world but suddenly after those fugitive chases, bombings, intrigue, murder and mayhem, the Codex story just seems to lose air and quietly lose relevance altogether.

The Aleppo Codex is real and I was inspired by this book to find out more about it. There was a great article in the 7/29/2012 issue of New York Times Magazine if you are interested.

I get really wrapped up in my reviews; I take them very seriously so the bottom line is I struggled to finish this book. It was not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination just not top drawer. There were entertaining and captivating moments. The discussions on the history of the Middle East conflict were worth reading the book.

[bettytaylor56 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Action packed. Suspenseful. A quick read.Alan Jacobson writes action packed tales with the same core characters from his Karen Vail FBI Profiler series and his OPSIG Team Black series. In this book, there are characters from both series which results in great interplay among them – Karen Vail, the FBI Profiler, former Special Forces “Santa” DeSantos, FBI terrorism expert “Uzi” Uziel, and CIA agent Mo al-Fahad. I received a request from Open Road Integrated Media to review this book. The novel centers around two missions the team is instructed to carry out. Numerous terrorist attacks are being carried out in the US. The team must find who is responsible and capture or kill them. The second mission is the recovery of two ancient biblical documents – the Lost Codex (which I have read about) and the Jesus Scroll (which I never heard of). Supposedly these documents contain secrets that would change religious teachings dramatically. Religious extremists are in possession of these documents and the US Government wants them recovered. The team finds itself wondering if the same people are involved in both of their missions. The team is conflicted not knowing who they can trust – and can they even trust each other?The action travels from country to country, city to city – Washington DC, New York, Paris, England, Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip. I enjoyed the whirlwind travel and the explanation of the significance of the documents and the political situation they are forced to deal with. There were a lot of characters in the story but the personalities were so well defined that I had no difficulty keeping track of them.It seemed there was a quick ‘wrap-up” of the story which caused me to only give it four stars. There were “off stage” characters that appeared at the beginning of the book and mentioned throughout but they never actually made another “appearance”. I’m not sure involving them at the end would have made it better…just can’t decide on that. Great action, great interplay, just needed a little something more at the end.