It was a descent book but not the best in the world. There some parts in the middle and the ending that was a little strange and quite confusing to me. For example I don't understand why the angle just gave up so easy after all that time chasing the woman and why she started bleeding out of no where but all in all it was an okay book. ( )

Reminiscent of early James Rollins and with a twist of Dan Brown, Vigil is the first of Masello's books following renowned paleontologist Carter Cox. Carter presents as a fun, sympathetic character who is as at home in the classroom with his students as he is in the field working with a new specimen.

As the story opens a honeymooning couple in Europe discover a cave recently uncovered by unusually low water levels. Inside are the fossilized remains of an unknown creature, one unlike any previously discovered. As Cox is called to aid in freeing the fossil, early lab tests in Rome return unbelievable results. The rock the fossil is embedded in, and the fossil itself, according to each untenable test, are from earlier than any life on earth, and long before limbed vertebrates like the fossil existed. As events unfold a young scholar works with furious dedication to put together fragments of a lost Dead Sea Scroll, certain that he was meant to find it and that he is meant to solve its mysteries.

Carter's belief in science is sorely tested the longer he is involved with the fossil and the odd occurrences around it from impossible test results to shared uneasy feelings to a series of horrific accidents. A colleague close to an explosion involving the fossil claims repeatedly that he saw it come to life, and he's not the only person seeing strange things or noting inexplicable events in the city.

The novel was a fun read and a page-turner. The mystery (for those familiar with the Book of Enoch, parts of it may be slightly less mysterious though still attention-grabbing) is intriguing, the two storylines flow together seamlessly, and Carter comes across as a knowledgeable and likable protagonist. I found the classroom scenes where he tries to teach young undergrads about paleontology and various theories in his field as interesting to read as the more suspenseful moments surrounding the fossil and the events Carter comes to play an unwittingly large role in. ( )