Daniel Grace’s novel In the Wake of Golgotha – a fusion of thought-provoking speculative fiction, gritty crime thriller and deep dive into reimagined Christian mythology – follows a reincarnated Pontius Pilate and Judas Iscariot (“two cursed pawns”) as they struggle to atone for their roles in Christ’s crucifixion 2,000 years earlier.

New York City defense attorney Peter Pheiffer is selected in a high-profile criminal defense case to represent Balthazar Bedrossian, an unhinged MRI technician who worked the night shift and is accused of crucifying three male victims on a basement wall in his Chinatown apartment. Meanwhile, Jude Issachar is a part-time social worker and literature professor who has a strange obsession with asphyxiation, particularly via a noose.

As Pheiffer’s and Issachar’s lives intersect through circumstance – or destiny – they understand that their past lives (Pheiffer a Roman governor and Issachar a zealot who vowed revenge against the empire of Judea) have positioned them in a time and place to understand their involvement in the betrayal of Christ and move on from the endless cycle of guilt.

The surprising element here is how much joy the author experienced writing a novel with such thematic gravitas. The story includes numerous, sometimes humorous, references to iconic writers and literary works (Dylan Thomas, L. Frank Baum, T.S. Eliot, e.g.), and Grace’s writing style reflects a storyteller glorying in his element. His extensive use of alliteration adds to the effect: In the past, Grace writes, “some two hundred million departed souls were brutally and bloodily breached, butchered, burned, beheaded, boiled, bombed, bayoneted, bulleted and betrayed in the good name of God…”

Ultimately, the narrative transcends boundaries of Christian fiction and explores what it means to be human living in a fallen world: “We are capable of such beautiful and terrible things,” Jude says.

Fans of biblical myth and faith-based fiction will cherish this wildly entertaining, provocative tale of resurrection, reincarnation, redemption – and alliteration.

Also available in paperback.