Bright Dark Madonna.

Bright Dark Madonna

Elizabeth Cunningham

Monkfish Book Publishing Company

27 Lamoree Road, Rhinebeck, NY 12572

www.monkfishpublishing.com

9780979882876, $26.00, www.amazon.com

A superbly written historical novel by a master storyteller, Elizabeth Cunningham's 474-page novel "Bright Dark Madonna" is the tale of Maeve, a young pregnant woman who played an intimate role in the mystery of the Resurrection as the Celtic Mary Magdalen. A great controversy breaks out when Maeve seeks to preach the gospel in her own manner, giving voice to her own ideas about how to raise the daughter that Jesus of Nazareth sired with her prior to his execution on a cross by the Romans at the behest of the Jewish religious authorities. When she returns to Temple Magdalen (a holy whorehouse she founded), a custody battle breaks out over her infant daughter Sarah and Jesus' mother must flee to the remote Taurus Mountains to living in hiding among the Galatians. There is where a mysterious stranger shows up on her door step badly in need of her healing. As Maeve determines to keep her family's secret she must also deal with her now adolescent daughter's anger, strength of will, and determination to learn the truth about her father. The legions of readers who so fully enjoyed and appreciated Elizabeth Cunningham's previous two titles in the Mary Magdalene trilogy, "The Maeve Chronicles" will be equally enthralled with the further adventures of Mary Magdalene in "Bright Dark Madonna" as the journey of Maeve and her daughter Sarah continue and conclude with the third and last volume in this outstanding and superbly written series.