Christopher Buckley's "hilarious, bawdy, and irreverent frolic of a
tale" about a sixteenth-century relic hunter and the artist Albrecht
Dürer who conspire to fabricate Christ's burial shroud reads "like
Indiana Jones gone medieval" (USA TODAY).The year is 1517. Dismas is a
relic hunter who procures "authentic" religious relics for wealthy and
influential clients. His two most important patrons are Frederick the
Wise and soon-to-be Cardinal Albrecht of Mainz. While Frederick is drawn
to the recent writing of Martin Luther, Albrecht pursues the financial
and political benefits of religion and seeks to buy a cardinalship
through the selling of indulgences. When Albrecht's demands for grander
relics increase, Dismas and his artist friend Dürer fabricate a shroud
to sell to the unsuspecting noble. Unfortunately Dürer's reckless pride
exposes the trickery, so Albrecht puts Dismas and Dürer in the custody
of four mercenaries and sends them all to steal Christ's burial cloth
(the Shroud of Chambéry), Europe's most celebrated artifact. On their
journey to Savoy where the Shroud will be displayed, they battle a
lustful count and are joined by a beautiful female apothecary. It is
only when they reach their destination they realize they are not alone
in their intentions to acquire a relic of dubious legitimacy. "A
rollicking good time, Christopher Buckley has transported his signature
wit and irreverence from the Beltway to sixteenth-century Europe in The
Relic Master" (GQ). This epic quest, "as rascally and convivial as any
that Mr. Buckley has written" (The Wall Street Journal), is filled with
fascinating details about art, religion, politics, and science; Vatican
intrigue; and Buckley's signature wit "holds the reader till the very
last page" (The New York Times Book Review).
