Secret of the Scroll by Chester D. Campbell

As I got to my feet, dusting myself off, I saw two women beside a car across the parking area staring in my direction. One appeared to have a cell phone planted against her ear. I shoved the pistol back under my jacket and hurried toward my Jeep. If they were calling 911, I needed to get away from here fast. ~ Secret of the Scroll, page 115 ~

Deadly groups of Palestinians and Israelis struggle to gain possession of an ancient parchment that was unknowingly smuggled from Israel to the U.S. by a retired Air Force investigator. Colonel Greg McKenzie finds himself mired in the duplicitous world of Middle East politics and religion when his wife, Jill, is taken hostage to the return of the first century Hebrew scroll. Hounded by a Metro Nashville detective when he fails to report his wife missing, Greg is forced to mount his own black operation inside Israel in an attempt to save Jill's life. Hanging in the balance is the secret of the scroll, which has the potential to fan the already flaming Arab-Israeli dispute into a raging holocaust.

This is a new-to-me author. While for the most part I enjoyed this book things just fell into place too easily for our main character. He didn't hit any bad spots, didn't have to make any u-turns, never struggled, plot-wise, to get his wife back. Whatever he needed to do he did and nothing got in his way. Everything just went like clock-work and that was the down fall for me. As far as I know this the author's first published book so I expected it to be a bit rough around the plot edges. There was action along the way and, for the most part, the story flowed so I'm willing to try book two in this series before I make a definite go or no go decision.