The exploited one

Kathleen McGowan's The Expected One isn't the first DaVinci Code wannabe | Janie B. Cheaney

How does this sound for a scenario: In a French seacoast town, a man with a secret is murdered and mutilated. Meanwhile, in the holy city of Jerusalem, an American writer receives a blindingly realistic vision of a scene 2,000 years old. The two events are not unrelated, and the vision launches our protagonist on a quest fraught with violence, conspiracy, suppressed documents, and the Vatican, eventually uncovering the shocking truth that Jesus and Mary Magadalene were married!

The Expected One, a novel by Kathleen McGowan which made its appearance on July 25, is hardly the first DaVinci Code wannabe. Religious thrillers are hot, and Mary Magdalene is enjoying a cult revival. But McGowan has raised the stakes by a bizarre stretch of author identification, claiming that she herself is a descendant of the Magdalene, and the plot of her novel is essentially her own story (with a few murders added for art's sake). She experienced the vision described in Chapter 1 back in 1997 (pre-DaVinci, mind) and was inspired to tell the tale that she finally self-published in 2005.