Here are 100 books that The Hidden History of The Shroud of Turin fans have personally recommended if you like The Hidden History of The Shroud of Turin. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Book cover of Shroud Encounter

Guy R. Powell Author Of The Only Witness

From my list on mystery of the Shroud of Turin.

Why am I passionate about this?

My passion for the Shroud of Turin began when my brother sent me Ian Wilson's The Blood and the Shroud. That book ignited a fascination that has grown into a lifelong pursuit. I now serve on two non-profit boards dedicated to the Shroud, sharing its mystery and history with others. I’m writing several books on the topic, started a podcast with over 13,000 subscribers, have interviewed over 100 Shroud experts from around the world, and created a TikTok video that has garnered over 600,000 views. Each post deepens my connection to this extraordinary artifact and allows me to engage with a vibrant, global community of fellow enthusiasts and researchers.

Guy's book list on mystery of the Shroud of Turin

Guy R. Powell Why Guy loves this book

Russ Breault’s book absolutely captivated me from the first page. I loved how it took me on a journey of discovery of the Shroud of Turin across all facets of this miraculous cloth. I found myself marveling at his meticulous research and the way Breault seamlessly blends history, science, and faith. I couldn’t put it down because every chapter left me with new questions and insights; I read it over the weekend.

The passion and depth of understanding Breault brings to this subject made me reflect in ways I didn’t expect. It is one of the best books on the Shroud of Turin.

By Russ Breault ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Shroud Encounter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It was a crime scene investigation like no other. A man was tortured, beaten, and killed. He was popular with the people, but many in power wanted Him dead. After a mock trial, the powerful had their way. He was given a hasty burial, but now the body has disappeared. Was there a clue left behind? A bloody sheet offers evidence of a horrific execution. Was the body stolen? By whom and why? Did it just vanish? What does the cloth reveal about the disappearance?

The Shroud of Turin (Italy) bears the faint front and back image of a bearded…


If you love The Hidden History of The Shroud of Turin...

Ad

Book cover of The High House

The High House by James Stoddard,

The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.

The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.

Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…

Book cover of The Blood and the Shroud

Guy R. Powell Author Of The Only Witness

From my list on mystery of the Shroud of Turin.

Why am I passionate about this?

My passion for the Shroud of Turin began when my brother sent me Ian Wilson's The Blood and the Shroud. That book ignited a fascination that has grown into a lifelong pursuit. I now serve on two non-profit boards dedicated to the Shroud, sharing its mystery and history with others. I’m writing several books on the topic, started a podcast with over 13,000 subscribers, have interviewed over 100 Shroud experts from around the world, and created a TikTok video that has garnered over 600,000 views. Each post deepens my connection to this extraordinary artifact and allows me to engage with a vibrant, global community of fellow enthusiasts and researchers.

Guy's book list on mystery of the Shroud of Turin

Guy R. Powell Why Guy loves this book

I used Ian Wilson’s book as the basis for my very first book on the Shroud. My brother gave it to me, and it was this book that was truly inspirational. I was drawn to how Wilson masterfully blends scientific inquiry with detailed historical accounts. 

I don’t know how he found so many historical references to the Shroud. I loved his meticulous approach to unraveling the story of the Shroud of Turin, which felt like a detective story rooted in faith and fact. I couldn’t put it down because it made me think, question, and marvel all at once. It is now an important reference for my next book.

By Ian Wilson ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Blood and the Shroud as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Refuting a 1988 claim of forgery, the author of the best-selling The Shroud of Turin scrutinizes all available evidence to provide a convincing argument that recent discoveries, including human blood and DNA on the Shroud of Turin, prove that the image of Christ is not a fake. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.


Book cover of From the Mandylion of Edessa to the Shroud of Turin

Guy R. Powell Author Of The Only Witness

From my list on mystery of the Shroud of Turin.

Why am I passionate about this?

My passion for the Shroud of Turin began when my brother sent me Ian Wilson's The Blood and the Shroud. That book ignited a fascination that has grown into a lifelong pursuit. I now serve on two non-profit boards dedicated to the Shroud, sharing its mystery and history with others. I’m writing several books on the topic, started a podcast with over 13,000 subscribers, have interviewed over 100 Shroud experts from around the world, and created a TikTok video that has garnered over 600,000 views. Each post deepens my connection to this extraordinary artifact and allows me to engage with a vibrant, global community of fellow enthusiasts and researchers.

Guy's book list on mystery of the Shroud of Turin

Guy R. Powell Why Guy loves this book

Andrea Nicolotti’s book is an incredible reference book on the Mandylion, aka the Image of Edessa. Is the Mandylion the Shroud, or are they different clothes? Was there a letter from Jesus to King Abgar or not? Nicolotti attempts to answer these questions.

I love how Nicolotti, a historian's historian, meticulously peels back centuries of myth and legend with a scholar’s precision His rigorous attention to detail and relentless pursuit of the truth is incredible. This book deepened my understanding and challenged my perspectives in ways I didn’t expect.

By Andrea Nicolotti ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked From the Mandylion of Edessa to the Shroud of Turin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

According to legend, the Mandylion was an image of Christ's face imprinted on a towel, kept in Edessa. This acheiopoieton image ("not made by human hands") disappeared in the eighteenth century. The first records of another acheiropoieton relic appeared in mid-fourteenth century France: a long linen bearing the image of Jesus' corpse, known nowadays as the Holy Shroud of Turin. Some believe the Mandylion and the Shroud to be the same object, first kept in Edessa, later translated to Constantinople, France and Italy. Andrea Nicolotti traces back the legend of the Edessean image in history and art, focusing especially on…


If you love Jack Markwardt...

Ad

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Book cover of The 1988 C-14 Dating Of The Shroud of Turin

Guy R. Powell Author Of The Only Witness

From my list on mystery of the Shroud of Turin.

Why am I passionate about this?

My passion for the Shroud of Turin began when my brother sent me Ian Wilson's The Blood and the Shroud. That book ignited a fascination that has grown into a lifelong pursuit. I now serve on two non-profit boards dedicated to the Shroud, sharing its mystery and history with others. I’m writing several books on the topic, started a podcast with over 13,000 subscribers, have interviewed over 100 Shroud experts from around the world, and created a TikTok video that has garnered over 600,000 views. Each post deepens my connection to this extraordinary artifact and allows me to engage with a vibrant, global community of fellow enthusiasts and researchers.

Guy's book list on mystery of the Shroud of Turin

Guy R. Powell Why Guy loves this book

Joe Marino's book is page after page of all of the international machinations to try and carbon date the most studied artifact, the Shroud of Turin. I was blown away by how Marino unravels the politics and intrigue behind one of history’s most controversial scientific experiments. The way he exposed the botched process and the personal dynamics involved made it impossible for me to put down.

I’ve never read anything with such meticulous research. This book will be referenced for decades to come. I felt like I was uncovering a secret history alongside him, and the revelations left me both fascinated and deeply reflective.

By Joseph G. Marino ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The 1988 C-14 Dating Of The Shroud of Turin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A majority of scientific and historical evidence proves the Shroud of Turin is the authentic burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. Only one test says otherwise-the carbon date performed in 1988.


The Shroud of Turin is the most studied artifact in human history. If science can prove the Shroud to be the authentic burial cloth of Jesus, the spiritual, psychological, and societal consequences would be unthinkably profound. In 1978, an investigation by a group of elite scientists known as Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP) pointed toward authenticity. STURP, composed mostly of U.S. scientists who worked in the country's nuclear…


Book cover of The Second Messiah: Templars, the Turin Shroud and the Great Secret of Freemasonry

Jim Willis Author Of The Wizard in the Wood: A Tale of Magic, Mystery, and Meaning

From my list on magic, mystery, and meaning in 21st century lives.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an author, theologian, musician, historian, and college professor who has written more than twenty books about ancient and alternative history, religion in modern culture, and long-distance, meditative bicycling. My study of the past convinced me that modern life has, for far too many of us, grown one-dimensional. It lacks the magic and mystery that imbued the ancients with the deep and rich mythology which we inherited from them, but then allowed to grow dormant within our sheltered lives. Remembering their vision and experience is a key to restoring our own sense of self-worth and essence. Maybe we all need to meet a “Wizard in the Wood!”

Jim's book list on magic, mystery, and meaning in 21st century lives

Jim Willis Why Jim loves this book

Combining some of the greatest conspiracy subjects ever put forth, this book offers a fresh take on the familiar, compelling secret history of what might have been, rivaling even Dan Brown in the process. How might the Templars have interacted with the Shroud? What might they have done with it? What are the secrets of Freemasonry that were known to so many of America’s Founding Fathers, and why is the world still interested? This is a book that made me think. And, more importantly, wonder! 

By Christopher Knight , Robert Lomas ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Second Messiah as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

2000 Barnes Noble hardcover, Knight, Christopher; Lomas, Robert (Uriel's Machine). Is the Shroud of Turin genuine? That is the question that Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas set out to answer in the follow-up to their ground-breaking first book, The Hiram Key. For over 700 years the world thought the shroud bore the image of the crucified Christ, but results of carbon dating have shown that the fabric could not have predated 1260. The authors have produced new evidence that conclusively proves that it is not a fake-yet neither is it the image of Jesus Christ. - Amazon


Book cover of The Knights Templar

Helena P. Schrader Author Of The Tale of the English Templar

From my list on understanding the Knights Templar.

Why am I passionate about this?

I became fascinated by history when, as a child, I visited the Coliseum in Rome; my father told me, “This is where they fed the Christians to the lions.” That awakened my curiosity for people of the past, and I went on to earn an undergraduate degree and a PhD in history at the Universities of Michigan and Hamburg respectively. My interest in the crusades was ignited by the enormous disconnect between popular perceptions and historical reality, and I have published two nonfiction books on the Crusader States, as well as seven novels set in the era of the crusades. The Knights Templar were an important component of my research.

Helena's book list on understanding the Knights Templar

Helena P. Schrader Why Helena loves this book

A picture is worth a thousand words! History books are filled with text and lots of footnotes and bibliographies, but so much of what is written can be boiled down or better explained by good pictures. And that’s what Nicholson has done in this book.

To supplement her concise and factual text (she’s a leading scholar on the topic of the Military Orders), she’s collected hundreds of images that illustrate the Templars—their castles and manors, their churches, their seals. She also provides colorful depictions of them from medieval sources, both frescoes and illuminated manuscripts. This book evokes the Templars and their lifestyle in a way that other books don’t even try. I love it!

By Helen J. Nicholson ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Knights Templar as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Much has been written about the Knights Templar in recent years, most of it highly speculative and with no historical foundation. They have been associated with everything from Freemasonry to the Holy Grail, the pyramids, the Shroud of Turin and space travel. A leading specialist in the history of this legendary medieval order now writes a full account of the knights of the Order of the Temple of Solomon, to give them their full title, bringing the latest findings to a general audience. There is no other accurate popular history of the Templars currently available aimed at a general audience.…


If you love The Hidden History of The Shroud of Turin...

Ad

Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple

Helena P. Schrader Author Of The Tale of the English Templar

From my list on understanding the Knights Templar.

Why am I passionate about this?

I became fascinated by history when, as a child, I visited the Coliseum in Rome; my father told me, “This is where they fed the Christians to the lions.” That awakened my curiosity for people of the past, and I went on to earn an undergraduate degree and a PhD in history at the Universities of Michigan and Hamburg respectively. My interest in the crusades was ignited by the enormous disconnect between popular perceptions and historical reality, and I have published two nonfiction books on the Crusader States, as well as seven novels set in the era of the crusades. The Knights Templar were an important component of my research.

Helena's book list on understanding the Knights Templar

Helena P. Schrader Why Helena loves this book

Historical accuracy is important to me. I am not interested in fantasy or alternative history, so when I read about any topic, whether in fictional or nonfictional form, I want books based on the historical record. Malcolm Barber is one of the leading scholars on the Knights Templar of the last three decades.

This book is a concise summary of his scholarship and is for me the absolute bible on the history of the Knights Templar.

By Malcolm Barber ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The New Knighthood as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Order of the Temple, founded in 1119 to protect pilgrims around Jerusalem, developed into one of the most influential corporations in the medieval world. It has retained its hold on the modern imagination thanks to the dramatic events of the Templars' trial and abolition two hundred years later, and has been invoked in historical mysteries from Masonic conspiracy to the survival of the Turin shroud. Malcolm Barber's lucid narrative separates myth from history in this full and detailed account of the Order, from its origins, flourishing and suppression to the Templars' historic afterlife.


Book cover of Hot Carbon: Carbon-14 and a Revolution in Science

David L. Kirchman Author Of Microbes: The Unseen Agents of Climate Change

From my list on microbes and the environment.

Why am I passionate about this?

Microbial ecologists once had the luxury of no one caring about their work. My colleagues and I had been busy showing that there are more microbes than stars in the Universe, that the genetic diversity of bacteria and viruses is mind-boggling, and that microbes run nearly all reactions in the carbon cycle and other cycles that underpin life on the planet. Then came the heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods, and other unignorable signs of climate change. Now everyone should care about microbes to appreciate the whole story of greenhouse gases and to understand how the future of the biosphere depends on the response of the smallest organisms.

David's book list on microbes and the environment

David L. Kirchman Why David loves this book

I almost put this book down when Marra started to describe what happened one early morning off the coast of Iceland, where he was trying to measure photosynthesis by marine microbes. A day earlier, he had filled bottles with seawater spiked with a radioactive form of carbon, carbon-14, and thrown the bottles overboard to incubate in the ocean. Now he had to retrieve them. As Marra recounted how the ship rolled in huge waves whipped up by 55-knot winds, my stomach churned as I remembered similar experiences on other vessels, in other seas.

Luckily for me and perhaps other seasick-prone readers, Hot Carbon returns to land for several chapters to sketch out the discovery of carbon-14 and its use in C14-dating historical artifacts such as the Shroud of Turin and in unraveling the mechanism of photosynthesis.

In the last part of the book, Marra returns to the ocean and outlines…

By John Marra ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Hot Carbon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

There are few fields of science that carbon-14 has not touched. A radioactive isotope of carbon, it stands out for its unusually long half-life. Best known for its application to estimating the age of artifacts-carbon dating-carbon-14 helped reveal new chronologies of human civilization and geological time. Everything containing carbon, the basis of all life, could be placed in time according to the clock of radioactive decay, with research applications ranging from archeology to oceanography to climatology.

In Hot Carbon, John F. Marra tells the untold story of this scientific revolution. He weaves together the workings of the many disciplines that…


Book cover of The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession

Sushma Subramanian Author Of How to Feel: The Science and Meaning of Touch

From my list on books about the senses.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a science writer, and I’m often inspired to explore topics in my daily life. I grew up shying away from being touched, and it wasn’t until I was older that I started to consider why. I was so compelled by this question, and more basic scientific ones such as what the sense of touch even is, that I wrote a whole book about it. Along that journey and beyond, I read about the other senses to see how other authors tackled similar subjects. Each book reminds me that I’m not just a brain floating around but a body full of sensation. 

Sushma's book list on books about the senses

Sushma Subramanian Why Sushma loves this book

Luca Turin, a biophysicist and writer, is obsessed with smell. You know those poetic-seeming, almost made-up descriptors we see in wine marketing? Well, that’s how he talks about smells. Turin also wants to figure out how we smell, which we still don’t know the answer to. Ultimately, by delving into some past research and building on it, he finds some answers, though they’re still not widely embraced.

Burr shares Turin’s story about the complexities of navigating the world of sensory science, especially as a passionate iconoclast. It also left me thinking about the art and science of sensing and about who has more expertise–the seasoned perfumer who can detect the fine notes within a glass bottle or the research scientist trying to describe the smell in a purely factual, scientific way.

By Chandler Burr ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Emperor of Scent as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Emperor of Scent tells of the scientific maverick Luca Turin, a connoisseur and something of an aesthete who wrote a bestselling perfume guide and bandied about an outrageous new theory on the human sense of smell. Drawing on cutting-edge work in biology, chemistry, and physics, Turin used his obsession with perfume and his eerie gift for smell to turn the cloistered worlds of the smell business and science upside down, leading to a solution to the last great mystery of the senses: how the nose works.


If you love Jack Markwardt...

Ad

Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic

Kevin J. Fellows Author Of At the End of the World

From my list on fabulist fiction books where the real and unreal collide, leaving us questioning both.

Why am I passionate about this?

After reading The Enormous Egg as a child, I’ve been devoted to stories where the strange, the uncanny, and the magical are all elements of the worlds characters must negotiate. I’m most drawn to fiction containing seemingly unreal elements because, in my experience, that is reality. Those moments when the past suddenly feels present, or when you glimpse something at the edge of your vision that feels significant, but you can’t quite catch it. Moments when anything is possible. No surprise that I write fiction that explores those moments of uncertainty and leaves the reader unmoored, thinking about the people and their experiences long after they’ve left the book.

Kevin's book list on fabulist fiction books where the real and unreal collide, leaving us questioning both

Kevin J. Fellows Why Kevin loves this book

I wish publishers translated more fantastical fiction from around the world. This collection by Mexican authors offers a buffet of the weird, fabulist, and otherworldly.

The translated prose is masterful. Many stories draw the distant, decaying realm lying between life and death, directly and viscerally, into the homes and lives of the characters.

Anthologies can often suffer from an unevenness between authors, but this collection is consistently surprising and offers something for any reader of fabulist fiction.

By Eduardo Jimenez Mayo (editor) , Chris N. Brown (editor) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Three Messages and a Warning as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A huge, energetic, and ambitious groundbreaking anthology from emerging and established Mexican authors which showcases all-new supernatural folktales, alien incursions, ghost stories, apocalyptic narratives, and more. Stereotypes of Mexican identities and fictions are identified and transcended. Traditional tales rub shoulders with mindbending new worlds. Welcome to the new Mexican fantastic. Eduardo Jimenez Mayo's translations include books by Bruno Estanol, Rafael Perez Gay, and Jose Maria Perez Gay. Chris N. Brown lives in Austin, Texas. He is a contributor to the blog No Fear of the Future. Bruce Sterling lives in Turin, Italy, and blogs at Wired's Beyond the Beyond.


Book cover of Shroud Encounter
Book cover of The Blood and the Shroud
Book cover of From the Mandylion of Edessa to the Shroud of Turin

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,210

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Jesus, presidential biography, and Christianity?

Jesus 275 books
Christianity 731 books