As of this morning, March 14, 2015, The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell (Simon & Schuster) is #14 on the New York Times Best Sellers list for hardcover fiction. It has been on the list for one week. Not bad since it has only been available for one week. That is what good PR will do for you. And having been a best selling author, before, doesn’t hurt.
BTW, here, from the NYT, is about as short a description as you can get for this novel:
Two brothers, a Greek Catholic and a Roman Catholic priest, both connected to a controversial museum exhibit about the Shroud of Turin, are at the heart of a mystery set in the Vatican in 2004.
YOU MIGHT THINK, if you have been part of the shroud crowd for a few years, that the Fifth Gospel refers to the shroud. Well, it doesn’t; not in this book. So, now, you are going to have to read it.
New Testament scholar, Anthony LeDonne, gives a good review of the book: http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/gronking-jesus/
The book reviewed is “The Lost Gospel”, which is absolute rubbish, not the one above.