Books like Year Zero by Jeff Long

Nathan Lee Swift, an American archaeologist and expectant father, is drawn into a moral conflict when he aids his professor in looting a Roman landfill at Golgotha, seeking a relic tied to the historical Jesus. A wealthy collector on Corfu later opens a secretive item—a 14‑inch relic with a one‑century‑old blood vial—which releases a long‑suppressed plague that spreads across the Mediterranean and threatens humanity. Pursuing the disease’s origin, Lee journeys back to the United States and eventually to New Mexico, where Los Alamos scientists are racing to develop a vaccine. There he encounters Miranda Abbot, a 19‑year‑old prodigy, and faces the unsettling reality of human clones derived from year‑zero specimens, including a figure who claims to be Jesus Christ or the patient‑zero prototype. Lee’s path intertwines archaeology, cloning, and the struggle to save both his unborn child and the world.

First publish date: 2002