The Work of Betrayal

Rosenthal's translation compels attention to Brelich's story, however slowly it unfolds and provocative its implications. The third of the author's ``novelized essays,'' the book centers on Poe's famous Detective Arsene Lupin. Now in old age, Lupin shares with a friend his beliefs about Judas, damned forever as an archcriminal. Citing his exhaustive research on the New Testament, Lupin advances a breathtaking theory as he weighs the role of Jesus in Judas's fall from an enviable place among the apostles. The author also examines the unforgivable sinner as portrayed in the Bible, especially the Gospel of St. John, before concluding his unique explanation of the motive behind the apostasy. More literary curiosity than mystery, the book is one long monologue whose detective protagonist is merely a device through which Brelich promulgates his unorthodox views. (July)