Publisher's Synopsis
MONSTRANCE I: Objet D'Art, a novel by John Kennedy
Second edition printing includes new cover, updates, new reviews and sample chapter from Monstrance II: Jake Maris III. Based in part on true crimes and real events.
EXCERPT 1: PENNY WALKED THROUGH THE OPEN-AIRED COURTYARD OF THE MUSEUM, but she did not hear the sound of the waterfall. Nor did she hear the gentle sounds from the steel wind chimes in the crisp autumn air. All she heard was the pounding of her heart and the words Monstrance! Monstrance! Monstrance! playing over and over like a raging mantra in her brain.
EXCERPT 2: BROTHER MICHELANGELO ENTERED THE HOTEL SUITE of the beautiful and very married Camille Batalla. Not wasting any time, the muscular monk ripped her skirt off, then her silk, lacy panties. Before she knew what was happening he entered her. He was wild and beautiful and brutal. And she wanted him for her lover forever.
DESCRIPTION: MADE OF PURE PLATINUM AND ENCRUSTED with over 900 precious jewels, the million-dollar Jackson-Bonet Monstrance of the Virgin Mary is a rare and spectacular religious relic designed to exhibit the Holy Eucharist for the adoration of the faithful.
In 1995, when Penney Johansen, the acting curator of the Maris-Sewell Museum discovers it is stolen from the vault at St. Peter's museum, a small Catholic monastery and college in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, state and federal law enforcement converge on the peaceful Oklahoma campus. Initial suspicion falls on the museum's former curator, a handsome, to-die-for Benedictine monk named Brother Michelangelo Covington, who is living a secret double life as a high-priced escort.
A wealthy Catholic American benefactress of St. Peter's and a Duchess of the Vatican, Rose Virginia Jackson, whose personal jewels graced the monstrance, commissioned the monstrance. The stunning and sacred monstrance was designed in Paris, France in the 1950's by famous sculptor, Jacques Bonet as a gift from Rose for her beloved monks at St. Peter's Monastery. It was a priceless treasure to the monks for forty years until it was discovered missing.
IN A RARE TWIST OF FATE, a well-known former student at St. Peter's and now a famous fashion male model, Jake Maris III, inadvertently stumbles across the crime while on a spiritual retreat at St. Peters and to visit his beloved former teachers and monks after a long hiatus. It had been a decade of traveling the globe as a model for the world's most prestigious designers; from American designer, Ralph Lauren, to Italian's most famous international designer to the world's best-dressed socialites, celebrities and royals, Paulo Da Volterra.
As a member of the wealthy and prominent Catholic Maris clan, also benefactors of St. Peter's for over half a century, and namesake of the Maris-Sewell Museum, Jake takes a personal interest in the crime and feels compelled to dig into the mystery of the stolen monstrance himself.
The unlikely detective begins a quest that will take him far from the bright lights and glamour of high-fashion runways and world fame into a dark and dangerous evil world. To his shock and dismay, he opens up a Pandora's box of long-hidden secrets, broken vows, sexual abuse, sexual blackmail, insatiable lust, illicit drugs, political corruption and cover-ups, black magic and murder, and his life will never, ever be the same.
NOTE: Monstrance Mystery Series is part of a 4-book series. It is a scandalous and riveting series of novels based in part on true crimes and real events, but written as fiction, that the author and investigative writer, John Kennedy, personally experienced and/or unearthed as he researched and wrote this series of books. As destiny would have it, he became an integral part of the story in spite of death threats, stalking, cyber-terrorism and a bizarre and extreme smear campaign to discredit him.
Official website: www.JohnKennedyAuthor.com
