Veteran author Gansky (A Ship Possessed
; A Treasure Deep
) uses first-person narrative to introduce the tormented criminologist Maxwell "Max" Odom. His wife is living with her parents, and he's on the brink of losing his job after a family tragedy leaves him a shell of his former self. While in Jerusalem on business, he stumbles into first-century Palestine at the time of Christ. His guide is the thinly disguised Yoshua ben Joseph, who takes him to various "crime scenes" and other venues where events played out before and after Christ's death. Max uses his (handily available) crime kits to assess evidence of various happenings, such as the blood-sweat that Christ shed in Gethsemane, his subsequent arrest and the death of Judas. In scenes of lengthy back-to-back dialogue, Max interviews various eyewitnesses who participated in the biblical story. Somewhat improbably, he doesn't guess who "Yoshua" really is, nor do any of the disciples or other characters they talk to, until the closing pages. Some forced similes appear ("I poured into the room like water pours into a glass"), and footnotes detract from the story. Weak-stomached readers will be dismayed by a gruesome autopsy scene as well as two chapters detailing a whipping and crucifixion. The ending holds no surprises for regular readers of apologetic faith fiction. (Jan.)
