This is the first book in the Christ Clone Trilogy. (The other two books are Birth of an Age and Acts of God.) The action opens in 1978, when Decker Hawthorne, the publisher of a small weekly paper, manages to sneak onto the team studying the Shroud of Turin as an assistant to Harold Goodman, one of his professors from college. Years later, Goodman calls Hawthorne and promises to give him an exclusive on the greatest news story since Christopher Columbus, in return for Hawthorne's silence until Goodman is ready to publish. To his shock, Hawthorne discovers that Goodman has cloned cells he found on the Shroud.

Other Comments: For the print editions, check the book page.

James took part in an online interview in March, 2000.