The Well of the Soul (2)

About the Book

Book: The Well of the Soul

Author: Doug Powell

Genre: Action/Adventure/Suspense

Release date: October 15, 2021

The Well of the Soul (1) A list of hiding places on a strip of papyrus found inside a mummy mask thrusts Graham Eliot, Ancient Near East scholar, into a hunt for the treasures of the second temple. The list has already cost the life of a colleague, and now he is being pursued as he races to recover what has been lost for almost 2,000 years.

As he literally digs into Jerusalem, he is haunted by the recent deaths of his wife and daughter, which have left him doubting the existence of God. His spiritual and archaeological struggles become more entwined as his life is repeatedly threatened the longer the work continues. When he reaches the final site—the cisterns below the Temple Mount, a network of caves and tunnel no one has entered in 150 years and that no one has ever explored—Graham discovers far greater treasure than he ever imagined.

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About the Author

Doug-Horizontal-1 Doug Powell is the best-selling author of more than a dozen books on Christian apologetics, a speaker, musician, songwriter, graphic designer, and a very amateur magician. He has performed on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and has been featured on CNN and NPR, and appears on two songs he co-wrote with Alan Parsons for the album The Secret. He lives outside Nashville, Tennessee.

More from Doug

In December 2013, I attended a private event where an Ancient Near East scholar demonstrated a method he had developed for deconstructing certain kinds of mummy masks. He explained that many mummy masks were made with an early form of papier-mâché called cartonnage. Instead of paper as we know it, the material that was molded and shaped was papyrus, an early form of paper made from the leaves of a papyrus plant. However, papyrus was too expensive to justify using it for mummy’s. So a funerary attendant would collect discarded books, letters, and documents—whatever he could find—and use them construct the mask.

The scholar then explained that if a mask could be found from the right location and the right time period, then it might contain fragments of biblical manuscripts. The problem was how to dissolve the adhesive to separate and extract the individual fragments. After much trial and error, he had hit on a solution—a liquid key, of sorts—to unlock the mask. He then went to the pantry where the event was taking place and turned on a camera mounted above the sink that fed video back to the auditorium where I watched the big screen along with more than a hundred other apologists and scholars.

He submerged the mask into what look like bubbles from dishwashing liquid, narrating what was happening as he worked the solution into the mask. After a few moments, he announced something had just come loose, then pulled a hand from the bubbles, an ancient fragment pinched between his fingers. He repositioned it in this palm and identified the text as Coptic. He set it aside to dry, then repeated the process, pulling fragments more quickly as the mask disintegrated.

The mask yielded several dozen fragments, many with writing on them. After letting them dry, the scholars who had watched the demonstration then tried to read and identify each of the texts on the fragments by entering the words they could make out into a database of ancient writings. Full disclosure: out of the entire batch, I could read only one word, which was and. So I didn’t exactly do any heavy-lifting to help move the body of scholarly knowledge forward. By the end of the next day, five fragments from the New Testament had been identified, and one from Jeremiah.

As fascinating as the experience was, I found myself wondering, What would be the craziest thing that could possibly be found inside the mask? At the time, I had no plans to write a novel. But somehow the question was a seed that grew in the dark, given that I didn’t actively pursue it. Years later—quite unexpectedly—I found an answer to the question. And I realized I was sitting on a premise to a novel. The presentation became the first scene in the book that became The Well of the Soul.

MY REVIEW

This is a very different kind of book that offers intrigue as well as historical facts. The beginning is what drew me in. I wanted to know what was found on the mask . Like the people in the audience I was glued to the screen in anticipation of an ancient find. What happens next starts the book on a journey to a foreign land where danger is well known in the country.

Graham is still having issues with his wife and daughter’s death so I wasn’t sure he was the right person to send overseas to recover an historical treasure. Maybe being there he will find his relationship with God restored. The author provides in depth details relating to Biblical times. It was like being placed back in time to witness what had taken place many, many years ago.

As the dig starts Graham is met with gun fire. Someone is out there to stop him from discovering a hidden treasure. I don’t blame Graham from wanting to stop and go home. I don’t think he signed up for risking his life to uncover a deep secret hidden for centuries. I did enjoy the action in the story and how quickly Graham and his team were discovered. Whatever the artifact is someone is willing to do harm to retrieve it from Graham. At times I wondered who could be trusted.

The story is good and I think for me I was more interested in Graham finding his way back to God. During his time looking for the treasure he had moments where he knew his life was in danger. It reminds me of when you face a crisis you cry out to God for help. Graham knew the only way he would survive the men who were after him was to believe that God was there to protect him. The book is not so much of a mystery as it is more of historical facts that I really liked reading about. The ending is good and wraps up everything nicely.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.