The Wolf and the Lamb

Starred review from October 13, 2014
Ramsay audaciously sets his outstanding third Jerusalem mystery (after 2013’s Holy Smoke) at the very time of Jesus’s arrest. When Pontius Pilate, emperor’s prefect of Judea and overseer of Palestine, is arrested for murdering his rival, Aurelius Decimus, all the evidence is against him. Pilate was caught literally red-handed, covered in blood at the scene of the crime, with his dagger stuck in Decimus’s corpse. Pilate insists he was framed. Since he doesn’t believe he will get justice from his Roman countrymen, he turns to Rabban Gamaliel, chief rabbi of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of first-century Israel. The rabbi’s commitment to justice compels him to accept the case, despite his loathing for his “client” and the consequences to his own standing if his fellow Jews get wind of his role. Meanwhile, the Dagger Men, a sect of Jewish assassins, begin their reign of terror. Ramsay brings the tumult of the time to vivid life while neatly integrating the events leading to Christ’s crucifixion into the whodunit story line.

November 1, 2014
A series of mishaps and machinations change the course of history. Gamaliel, the Rabban of the Sanhedrin, constantly argues with Caiaphas, High Priest of the Temple, who's obsessed with Yeshua, a Galilean rabbi whom Gamaliel considers harmless. Their real concern should be their Roman overlord, Pontius Pilate, Emperor's Prefect of Judea and Overseer of the Palestine. A young boy, instead of Legionnaires, orders Gamaliel to report to Pilate, who greets him in a small room in the bowels of the Antonia Fortress where he's under house arrest, accused of murdering Aurelius Decimus, a rival for power. Cassia Drusus, sent out by the emperor to inspect outposts of the empire, arrested Pilate when he found him standing over the body of Aurelius with Pilate's dagger in his heart. Even though they're enemies, Pilate gives Gamaliel the thankless job of proving his innocence because he knows the rabbi's sense of justice will oblige him to agree and accept Marius, the young boy sent with the message, as his guide and messenger. Wending their way through the crowds visiting for Passover, Gamaliel and his physician friend Loukas visit many places in Jerusalem, from the hippodrome to a theater, seeking clues, especially to the whereabouts of Marius, who's vanished. The tension arising from political intrigue among Romans and Jews crests when Caiaphas arrests Yeshua and schemes to avoid a trial over which Gamaliel would preside. Pilate, who has his own reasons for wishing Yeshua dead, creates a rule allowing him to release the dangerous criminal Barabbas and crucify Yeshua in his stead. Gamaliel is sure Pilate is innocent of Aurelius' murder, but it will take all his skills to prove it. Ramsay's fourth Jerusalem novel (Holy Smoke, 2013, etc.) links another challenging mystery to some intriguing answers to age-old questions surrounding the death of Jesus.

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