Sarah's Reviews > The Centurion's Wife

The youngest daughter of a Roman man and a Romanized Jewish woman, Leah is now orphaned and penniless. She is hired as a maidservant by Claudia Procula, a friend of her deceased mother. When Claudia's husband, Pontius Pilate, is sent by the Emperor to be governor of Judaea, Leah has no choice but to sail with the family she serves.

Leah doesn't feel fully at home among Romans, but she has nothing in common with her other people, the Jews, whom she has had little exposure to before now. She doesn't understand their religious fervor, or their ever-simmering hatred and disgust for the Romans. This Passover has been even more fractious than usual, culminating in the execution of an itinerant preacher with a restless following. All Leah knows about the dead man, Yeshua of Nazareth, is that He haunts Claudia's nightmares.

But as turbulent days rush by and bizarre rumors sweep Jerusalem, Claudia pays Leah to infiltrate Yeshua's followers and learn as much about Him as she can.

Leah must get these Galilean hillbillies to trust her while evading another detective, the centurion Alban, hired by her employer's husband. Pilate has betrothed Leah to Alban, without seeking the girl's permission, on the condition that the soldier discover the missing corpse of Yeshua, proving that He died and saving Pilate's administration a lot of embarrassment. Alban is young, brave, handsome, and kind, so Leah just knows he's hiding something.

No content advisory needed. This is one of the cleanest adult books I've ever read. It is fine for young teens.

Bunn and Oke write as a surehanded unit. The pacing is fluid and the fictional characters are mostly a likeable crew, especially Alban, his servant boy Jacob, and his army buddy Linux, both of whom will have major roles in the two later installments. Leah is something of both a misanthrope and misandrist, but once we learn how she got that way she's easy to sympathize with. The Biblical characters are sketched with much less detail, except for Claudia. As my friend Katie noted in her review, this Claudia comes across as manipulative, and afraid of Jesus rather than fascinated by Him. This is quite different from how she comes across during her brief appearance in Scripture, or how she's been portrayed in works such as The Passion of the Christ.

The romance that blooms between our two sleuths is sweet and slow and filled with empathy.

I took off two stars for the two major problems I have with the series. The first one continues throughout, and I'll discuss it when I review The Damascus Way.

The other is a fleeting line, almost too petty to mention, that occurs halfway through the book...

The scene: Leah has been befriended by Mary Magdalene (who is given very little development in this book and disappears by the second book). Our heroine is distressed one day and runs to the Disciples' neighborhood, and is greeted by a gaggle of Christian girls her age and younger. They ask her whom she seems and she, panting after running across the city, can just get out the word "Mary."

"We have several Marys," says one of the girls. "There's Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany*, Mary the Mother of our Lord -" Then one of her friends cuts in, "Don't be silly. Why would she want to talk to His mother?!"

Yeah, who'd want to talk to her? I mean, Luke did, the third Gospel writer and Dear and Glorious Physician. himself, but he's like, I don't know, a saint or something.

In all seriousness though. It makes no sense that these young women, who were friends of Jesus while He lived, would disrespect His mother. She was the kindest and most supportive of women, and probably many there loved her as much as their own moms.This whole episode had no reason to exist, was probably out of character, and as a Catholic I found it to be in poor taste.

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Anyway, that part bugged me but it was not enough to ruin the book. Coming soon, The Hidden Flame .

*There's a theory that Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, and Mary Magdalene are the same person.