"Who knew that RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was based on real events? This audiobook, expertly performed by Stephanie Willis, is a must for anyone who enjoyed the Harrison Ford movie and wants to know what really happened in 1908, when a British expedition searched for the Ark of the Covenant, alleged to have "mystical" powers." –AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award Review
True Raiders is The Lost City of Z meets The Da Vinci Code, from critically acclaimed author Brad Ricca.
This audiobook tells the untold true story of Monty Parker, a British rogue nobleman who, after being dared to do so by Ava Astor, the so-called "most beautiful woman in the world," headed a secret 1909 expedition to find the fabled Ark of the Covenant. Like a real-life version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, this incredible story of adventure and mystery has almost been completely forgotten today.
In 1908, Monty is approached by a strange Finnish scholar named Valter Juvelius who claims to have discovered a secret code in the Bible that reveals the location of the Ark. Monty assembles a ragtag group of blueblood adventurers, a renowned psychic, and a Franciscan father, to engage in a secret excavation just outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
Using recently uncovered records from the original expedition and several newly translated sources, True Raiders is the first retelling of this group's adventures– in the space between fact and faith, science and romance.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press
True Raiders
The Untold Story of the 1909 Expedition to Find the Legendary Ark of the Covenant
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 21, 2021 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781250821454
- File size: 298795 KB
- Duration: 10:22:29
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Who knew that RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was based on real events? This audiobook, expertly performed by Stephanie Willis, is a must for anyone who enjoyed the Harrison Ford movie and wants to know what really happened in 1908, when a British expedition searched for the Ark of the Covenant, alleged to have "mystical" powers. There is a simple and logical explanation for the Ark's "powers," which alone makes this audiobook worth a listen. Author Brad Ricca based his work on historical records, letters, and recorded first-person accounts. Willis puts her acting and directing skills to good use as she smoothly slips in and out of British, Arabic, and Turkish accents in telling the tale of the expedition. RAIDERS fans will be astonished to learn just how close to reality the movie is. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine -
July 12, 2021
Ricca follows up Olive the Lionheart with another cinematic history of a European aristocrat’s adventures in distant lands. In 1909, Montague “Monty” Parker, an English nobleman and veteran of the Second Boer War, led an expedition to Palestine in search of the Ark of the Covenant. He was hired by businessmen who believed that a Finnish scholar had discovered a cipher in the Old Testament that, when decoded, provided a map to where the Ark was hidden in a network of subterranean tunnels near Jerusalem. Following the scholar’s map and the findings of an earlier British explorer, Charles Warren, Parker and his team of amateur archaeologists excavated Hezekiah’s Tunnel, believed to have been built in the 8th century BCE to provide Jerusalem with water during a siege by the king of Assyria. Ricca details the history of biblical sites including Gihon Spring, also known as the Virgin’s Fountain, where Mary was believed to have washed Jesus’s swaddling clothes, as well as a strike by local laborers, the race to beat a rival expedition funded by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, and allegations that Parker stole antiquities from the Mosque of Omar. Parker’s rumored romance with Ava Astor, the estranged wife of John Jacob Astor, provides a touch of glamour. Archaeology buffs will be enthralled. Agent: Scott Mendel, Mendel Media Group.
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