The Lazarus Covenant

The Lazarus Covenant is a 2009 suspense-international suspense fiction fiction novel written by American author John Fenzel and published by the BREATHE Press in the United States.
The Lazarus Covenant opens in the 1970s during the latter years of Tito’s Yugoslavia. Two young boys, cousins Marko and Celo encounter a mass execution in progress. As they witness the executions and try to help a near-dead survivor to safety, they are discovered by a Yugoslav Army Officer who pursues and attempts to kill them too. In a desperate struggle for survival, the cousins fight their way home. Because of his injuries, Celo must remain in Yugoslavia with his father while Marko flees with his aunt to the Northern Ireland where he lives through “the Troubles” between Catholics and Protestants. Both boys remain separated into adulthood. Thirty-five years later, as war threatens to ravage the Balkans once again, Marko reluctantly returns to Bosnia as Mark Lyons, the deputy commissioner of a United Nations police task force for the Balkan Region. On the day he arrives in Sarajevo, an American peace envoy is brutally assassinated, and the United Nations High Commissioner launches Mark up to the scene to immediately investigate. There are witnesses to the assassination. One of them is Sandy Evenson, beautiful, gregarious war crimes prosecutor for The Hague. As it unfolds in front of her, she frantically takes photos of the carnage. Mark investigates the scene and soon suspects a cover-up is underway. When Sandy’s photos are printed, ghosts of Mark’s Balkan past return. News of the assassination quickly arrives at a White House desperate to avoid another Balkan War. In the White House Situation Room, the Commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, Lieutenant General John Thorpe is informed that stolen plutonium is in the hands of an Islamic Jihadist group in Bosnia, and he is sent to Sarajevo to determine if the two incidents are connected.
The novel explores the scourge of extremism, terrorism and war, weaving sub-themes of friendship, faith and forgiveness across settings that extend from the Oval Office to the Balkans, in a time of extreme international crisis.
Fenzel's novel was published in March 2009, and will be released on May 1, 2009. It is an international thriller in the tradition of Daniel Silva, Gerald Seymour and John LeCarre.
Plot summary (Warning: Some plot spoilers)
In the latter years of Tito’s Yugoslavia, two young boys, cousins MARKO (recently orphaned) and CELO come upon a mass execution in progress. As they witness the executions and try to help a near-dead survivor (LAZARUS) to safety, they are discovered by VOYISLAV PIJADJE, a Yugoslav Army Officer who attempts to kill them. In a desperate struggle for survival, they fight their way home, knowing they will be pursued by Tito’s Army. Because of his injuries, Celo remains with his father while Marko flees with his aunt to Northern Ireland. Both boys remain separated into adulthood.
Thirty years later, as war threatens to ravage the Balkans again, Marko reluctantly returns to Bosnia as MARK LYONS, the Assistant Commissioner for the European Union Police Mission. On the day he arrives in Sarajevo, he meets UN High Commissioner ROMAN POLKO, who challenges him to help break the cycle of violence in Bosnia by focusing on the children. Lyons silently—and rather cynically—dismisses Polko’s challenge as peripheral to his real mission…he’s a policeman, not a babysitter! When an American peace envoy is brutally assassinated, Polko asks Lyons to investigate.
SANDY EVENSON, beautiful, gregarious and stubborn war crimes prosecutor for The Hague, has been working in Bosnia since the last war. She is finally going home to New England when she witnesses the assassination. As it unfolds in front of her, she frantically takes photos of the carnage. Because she does not trust the local Bosnian authorities, she flees the scene and they pursue her.
As Lyons investigates the scene, he determines the cause to be a deliberate ambush. When the European Force Commander arrives, however, Lyons quickly suspects a cover-up is underway. Knowing that Evenson may be his only reliable witness to the assassination, Lyons manages to intercept her and convinces her to stay for a while longer in Bosnia to assist him with his investigation.
News of the assassination quickly arrives at a White House desperate to avoid another Balkan War. In a National Security Council (NSC) meeting, the President characterizes the incident as an “accident.” Satellite imagery shows the presence of Evenson and yet another witness, a wanted Serb war criminal and militant political activist, known as Celo. In response, the NSC directs an intensive effort to kill or capture Celo. In the Situation Room, the Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, Major General JOHN THORPE, hears mention of the UN investigator on the scene—friend and former colleague, Mark Lyons.
As he steps out of the White House Situation Room, Thorpe is taken aside by long-time friend and Deputy CIA Director, JIM GOODWIN, who informs Thorpe that they have uncovered information that leads them to believe stolen plutonium has been shipped to an Islamic Jihadist group in Bosnia. Goodwin wonders privately if the two incidents are connected and requests Thorpe’s assistance.
Ghosts of Lyons’ Balkan childhood return when he sees Evenson’s photos and recognizes the image of Celo at the scene of the ambush. Evenson confronts him and he informs her of their relationship. Evenson, increasingly intrigued by Lyons, struggles to learn more about him.
Croatian Archbishop PAPA VOYO (Cardinal Voyislav Pijadje), self-appointed leader of an ancient renegade Catholic sect secretly assigned the mission of protecting the Church, masterminded the assassination of the American envoy in order to steal a CIA report about an Islamic nuclear terrorist plot against the Vatican. Voyo is also leading the public campaign to have a controversial World War II-era Croatian cardinal canonized in Medjugorje, Bosnia—a famous Catholic pilgrimage site near the epicenter of the developing Balkan crisis.
KATE KAMRATH, seasoned war reporter for the New York Times, good friend of Evenson and acquaintance of Lyons from her reporting in Northern Ireland, meets with Celo and learns that the death of the American envoy was not an accident as described by the White House, but an assassination. Celo tells her that a female UN official was also at the scene taking photos. During the course of her interview, Kamrath mentions the name Mark Lyons to Celo in passing, unaware that they are related. It is the first time Celo hears that his cousin has returned to Bosnia.
Kamrath has a chance encounter with Evenson and Lyons and conveys her awareness that something is not quite right with the official account of the envoy’s death and intimates that she knows Evenson was a witness. Evenson later meets with Kamrath and convinces her to delay her story. Kamrath reveals the tragic story of Lyons’ life in Northern Ireland.
Roman Polko quietly informs Lyons that Celo is wanted for war crimes. Celo invites Lyons to meet at the site of the mass execution both of them witnessed 30 years ago. As they converse, Lyons spots a NATO Commando team that is preparing to capture Celo. Lyons helps Celo escape, enraging the commander and a long-time nemesis of Lyons.
Thorpe acts on intelligence that implicates a known Pakistani nuclear engineer with the illicit importation of nuclear bomb components. A GSG-9 raid in Germany points to a Jihadist “Manhattan Project” in Bosnia. Thorpe meets with Lyons and tells him that he needs his help.
Lyons receives information from Celo that leads them to a warehouse complex in an isolated, mountainous corner of Bosnia. Lyons and Evenson fly there and discover armed Muslim men who have been executed by an elite paramilitary force. Inside the warehouse complex, they find a sophisticated nuclear weapons laboratory with evidence that indicates two nuclear bombs have been constructed…one has already been delivered to a known Islamic terrorist group, and the other has been stolen from the warehouse by the paramilitary force. The situation is immediately apparent: two nuclear bombs are in the hands of competing terrorist groups.
In Zagreb, Lyons is contacted by an anonymous source, LAZARUS, who leads him to Papa Voyo. Through Lazarus’ cryptic communiqués, Lyons learns that Voyo was the Yugoslav Army officer he fought thirty-five years earlier at the mass grave. Voyo detects another threat to his “sacred” mission and orders Lyons’ execution.
Characters and their involvement in The Lazarus Covenant
Goran "Celo" Mescic - 12, nearly 13 year old boy. Cousin to Marko
Marko Mescic - 12 year old boy. Cousin to Celo. Father is a political prisoner taken from him in the night. At story opening, Marko had been with Celo, and his aunt and uncle for six months
Milan Mescic - Celo's father and Marko's uncle, taken by Tito's men
Tito - Leader of Yugoslavia
Lazarus - Victim of mass execution at Brinisi Dam
Milan and Maja Mescic - Celo's parents, Marko's aunt and uncle
Goran Maric - Head of the organized crime syndicate in Eastern Bosnia
Mark Lyons (Marko) - Assistant Commissioner of the European Union Police Mission
Kate Kamrath - Reporter for the The New York Times
Jack Fulbright - Chief American envoy to Bosnia-Herzegovina
Vojislav Pijadje - Cardinal and Archbishop of Zagreb
Milo Stanic - The President of Croatia
General Ian Rose - European Union Force (EUFOR) Commander (British)
Doctor Jean Renee Lauvergeon - Doctors Without Borders physician who sees girl with radiation sickness
Joseph Steinberg - The U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia
Lieutenant General Lester “Butch” Sterns - Army 3-star in Suburban with Steinberg and Fulbright
Sergeant Mike McCallister - EUPM assistant to Mark Lyons
Sandy Evenson - Lead investigator for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
Roman Polko - United Nations High Commissioner
Robert Childs - CIA Station Chief for the Balkans
Jon Schauer - Photojournalist and long-time friend of Sandy Evenson
Vladimir - Helicopter pilot (loaned by Polko to Mark)
Sergeant Maric - Local Bosnian police investigating the Fulbright ambush
Riso and Refik Siric - Father and son owners of the "Restauran Slap" in Oborci where ambush takes place
Lieutenant General John Thorpe - Commanding General, U.S. Joint Special Operations Command
President Thomas Sells - U.S. President
Jim Goodwin - Deputy Director of the CIA
Chris Ryan - Team leader of the British SAS Team
Dragan “Ivo” Bostic - Deputy for Celo Mescic
Savo Heleta - One of Croatia’s war heroes from the last Balkan war, Catholic Monsignor, Archbishop of Zagreb and Deputy to Papa Voyo
Relevance to Current World Events
In February 2009, Dennis Blair, President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, warned that current events in Bosnia are the greatest threat to stability in Europe today, stating that tensions have reached the “highest level in years.” He testified before Congress that Bosnia’s ability to survive as a single, multi-ethnic state is in grave danger..
The plotline of The Lazarus Covenant assumes a resurgence of instability in Bosnia.
Symbolism
Part of the advertising campaign for the novel was that the artwork for the bookjacket symbolize various elements in the storyline. The Dust Jacket's symbolism includes:
* The front of the book's dust jacket depicts the negative image of a blackbird. The blackbird is intended to evoke the battle between the Serbs and the Ottoman Empire at the "Field of Blackbirds" in 1389.
* The negative image of the bird symbolizes the critical role photography plays throughout the novel's story.
* The blackbird's eye looks back to symbolize the role of history, terror and suspense throughout the novel.
* Bold letters for the title, vertically positioned the book jacket, symbolize a descent and ascent between terror and hope.
* The blackbird's flight through a splatter of blood symbolizes the desperate struggle of Mark Lyons against a deadly enemy and Lyons' ultimate survival
Section Separator:
* Within chapters, the flight of two blackbirds separates sections--symbolizing the relationship between Mark Lyons and Celo Mescic.
Quotes:
Fenzel, both via his website and in person, has stated that the most important theme in The Lazarus Covenant rests in the principal that the way man treats one another has intrinsic linkages and that the person you help today, may very well be the one who helps you tomorrow (and vice versa). To emphasize that point, Fenzel provides quotes, to include one from the "Father of History," Thucydides:
Indeed, it is true that in these acts of revenge on others, men take it upon themselves to begin the process of repealing those general laws of humanity which are there to give a hope of salvation to all who are in distress, instead of leaving those laws in existence, remembering that there may come a time when they, too, will be in danger and will need their protection.
-Thucydides

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu