The Star in the East

A Winter Tale of Ancient Mystery

By: John Adcox

Narrated by: Jacob Dawes

Christmas is a season of secrets and miracles. It's also a season of mystery.

Throughout their married lives, baseball star Gaspar Bethlen's wife gave him a lovingly crafted mystery every year for Christmas. Solving the clues led him to his present, but the mysteries themselves were the true gift. Now, Beth has died, leaving Gasper a wreck of a man. But Beth left behind a clue, the beginning of one final Christmas mystery, and it's much more than either of them expected.

The heartbroken man follows a coded message that leads him to an antiquarian bookstore, where he receives an old book—the next clue. Soon, Gaspar is caught up in a globetrotting adventure. Facing one danger and desperate escape after another, he races to unravel a puzzle involving a priceless jewel, ancient star maps, a noble bloodline, and an astonishing secret that dates all the way back to the very first Christmas.

The Star in the East is a winter tale of ancient mystery, of secrets and puzzles, and of breathtaking action and adventure. It's also a heart-shattering story of faith, love, and healing—the true Christmas miracle.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 John Adcox (P)2022 The Story Plant

Genre-Defying Mystery/Adventure/Romance

If you like mystery/adventure stories like American Treasure and The Da Vinci Code, you will probably like this story, which presents mystery after mystery, building up towards many surprising discoveries and revelations for the characters (and this reader!) It also helps (but is not essential) if you are a baseball fan and if enjoy romantic fiction.

Best read during the Christmas season, you probably got that from the title and the cover art though!
Some minor issues with pacing, some of the action ‘scenes’ are very long, and some of the exposition is a bit too ‘expositive’, but these are minor nits for a book that was very entertaining and thought provoking.

Interactions between the professional baseball player (Gaspar) and the nerdy bookstore owner (Will) are very entertaining, would be fun to see more of them working together in a follow-up book or two.

The narration by Jacob Dawes was outstanding, he does an incredible job with the voices and the accents.