Mackellan Kirby, professor of Ancient Religious Studies, with some ongoing connection to the British SAS, is enjoying retirement in Ireland, when he discovers an anomaly in the Dead Sea Scroll he has been entrusted with translating. Always ready to solve any mystery, he enlists the aid of his American niece and nephew. Their search takes them to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in northern Spain, the goal of thousands of pilgrims every year. But their holiday jaunt immediately turns deadly when other factions become interested in their search. The artifact they recover, in the cellars of the cathedral, brings together writings from the first century A.D. about a charismatic leader who escaped from Judaea with his wife Mary; the story of the eleventh century bishop entrusted with the construction of the cathedral; and the truth of the Conspiracy of St. James--a cover-up of a secret so significant that its exposure could rock the modern Christian church to its knees. If only Kirby and his young relatives live long enough.

Mysterious murders make the pilgrims on the Way of St James shudder from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela. By chance, one of the pilgrims, the German chief detective Raschke from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, witnessed an act. At first, the encounter seems random. Then, however, a series of murders begins, which takes place parallel to the pilgrimage of the police officer. Attacks are also committed on Raschke, who is apparently to be eliminated as an annoying witness. For the Spanish police, the German becomes a decoy who should lead them to the perpetrators.

Conspiracy Theorizing explore how should individuals with the Christian faith should react to conspiracy theories, their untruths, and their dangers. This book outlines the way that conspiracy theories are the fundamental basis for this stigmatization and scapegoating. It goes further to explain that scapegoating is fostering extreme divisions within in societies and between nations with each side often demonizing the other. This book states how conspiracy theories satisfy people’s needs for certainty, security, and a positive self-image in a world they feel is disintegrating. Uncovering deeper, when the comforting securities of cultures crumble, paranoia makes sense. This book demonstrates that an inability to live with uncertainty and ambiguity draws people to conspiracy theories when they validate their apprehensions. The commentary in this book also validates that since conspiracy theories can never be verified by objective research and truths they are one of the most problematic subjects to expose. This book aims to answer these questions: What are conspiracy theories? Why do they arise, especially in times of cultural upheavals? Are they harmful? What do the Christian Scriptures say about them? Readers that are interested in religion, Christianity and conspiracy theories would enjoy this book.

This is an investigative novel that starts by asking the simple but pertinent question: since there are no sources whatsoever testifying that the saint, or his remains were in Spain, then who invented all this, and why? I became interested in this issue after having read a tiny sentence in the official history book of St. James, which casually states that the Cathedral of Compostela lost the relics of St. James for nearly three hundred years, from 1588 to 1879. Lose the most important relics in Christendom? I surmised that they didn’t lose them, because they never had them in the first place. That also would despatch the implausible tale of how the saint’s remains had travelled by stone vessel, steered only by the wind, in eight days, from Jerusalem to Galicia in Spain, in 44 A.D. Still, St. James’ legends gave rise to the largest pilgrimage in European history. A riddle indeed. Challenged by a publisher, I decided to investigate this story not as most historians have, namely to accept the Church’s version, but instead, to follow a journalistic approach; to search for those who benefitted - who had ulterior motives. Banking on my business experience, and art historical knowledge, I hoped to solve this riddle whilst walking part of the route, the so-called ‘camino’, between Burgos and Santiago de Compostela. In so doing I also aimed to find out why people should want to do this arduous journey today, as ca. 300,000 annually do. It resulted in this travel account and investigative analysis, and a very defensible solution to the riddle of St. James. The Church employed fear to persuade Christians to seek penance and forgiveness at an empty shrine in Spain. This exploit I have called a conspiracy. A serious accusation, but in my view, also a defensible claim. Once underway something strange happened. An English former banker was shot in front of my eyes. Whilst this incident is fictional, it strangely fits in my fact-based investigation of what happened between the 9th to 16th centuries when literally millions upon millions of pilgrims took a year off to visit Compostela. The pilgrimage led to a colossal industry, and the strange shooting incident pointed me to some of its present-day benefactors.