After playing an intimate role in the mystery of the Resurrection, what
is left for Maeve, the Celtic Mary Magdalen? Never a follower, will she
emerge as a leader of the early church? Will she retire quietly to
mother a sacred bloodline? Will she set sail for France to proselytize
and go spelunking? The answer: all and none of the above. No sooner does
Maeve open her mouth to preach the gospel her way than a fierce debate
begins about what to do with the child she is carrying. Maeve has her
own ideas about where best to raise the savior's scion. When she returns
to Temple Magdalen, the holy whorehouse she founded, a custody battle of
biblical proportions ensues. Maeve, her infant daughter, Sara, and
Jesus' mother flee to the remote Taurus Mountains where they live in
hiding among the Galatians until a mysterious man is dumped on their
doorstep more dead than alive. When Maeve discovers the identity of the
man she has healed, she is appalled and determined to keep her family's
secret. But Maeve has reckoned without the will of her brilliant, angry
adolescent daughter, who resolves to find out the truth about her
father--for herself. Required listening for fans and accessible to those
new to The Maeve Chronicles, Bright Dark Madonna takes the listener on
a breathtaking journey from the temple porticoes of Jerusalem, to the
Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, to the south of France, and, as always, to
the treacherous, beautiful terrain of the human heart.
