¥725

In Tokyo, Cooper, spiritually & emotionally gutted, has sold his mind to Victor Hawkins who has a "most unusual traffic" in documents & human beings (little girls). Cooper's work is to appraise & verify papers & letters, among them now the Q document, once in the hands of a former Jewish scholar who became a Nazi. The document, a contemporary source for the four Gospels, has a potential for heresy which could destroy Christianity, & once certified, Victor plans to sell it to the Red Chinese. Cooper, partly thru a Father O'Connor who tries to make him see the spiritual light, partly thru Myoko, an 11-year-old child he rescues & hides from Victor, & partly thru Willa, his mistress, is moved to act--if he can't disprove the document he is ready to destroy it. All of this provides a drama with some obviously Greene-ish tints; the hollow hero; the spiritual conscience; the regenerative humanity. On its own, it comes off very well, as a smooth-surfaced suspense story sharpened by more inscrutable elements.--Kirkus

This is a 1946 book that can be read today as a best seller! Written as a page turner especially if you are interested in Bible history and like a good mystery! Really got into the characters! I've had this on my self for a very long time and enjoy rereading it! 

This attracted my eye because it's a suspense novel which involves not only Nazis (bad!), but the Quelle document (good) presumed to be the lost sayings of Jesus behind the commonalities of Matthew and Luke. 

Before the DiVinci Code! ... about a American scholar living in Japan who is hired by a man of various questionable pursuits to authenticate some ancient papyrus documents as being true commentaries on the life of Christ.