Alan A. Winter’s newly reissued thriller unfolds against the always-tumultuous background of the Middle East.

In the near future, a momentous event is imminent: the reassembly in Jerusalem of the Codex of Aleppo, a sacred book long thought to be lost. But two snipers, one Israeli and one Palestinian, are keeping watch, each planning to stop the ceremony.

From there, the novel jumps to New York City and back slightly in time to introduce Cardinal Arnold Ford. The cardinal witnesses the murder of a Jewish man, who hands him a mysterious scrap of parchment before expiring. Police detective LeShana Thompkins arrives to question Ford. Like him, she’s black; unlike him, she’s also Jewish.

Thompkins recognizes the parchment as a fragment of the Codex of Aleppo. Under the pretense of questioning Ford, she reveals aspects unknown to the priest about his heritage, including his own Jewish roots and connections to both Marcus Garvey and the Nation of Islam. Interwoven through this conversation are related scenes from myriad times and places. The backstories of other characters also unfold and converge in the novel’s final pages.

Winter has found inspiration in multiple undeniably fascinating historical elements, detailed in his afterword. Just one of these would have made a gripping novel, and therein lies the book’s major flaw: Savior’s Day gets bogged down in its many plot strands and character arcs, more than it can sustain at around 300 pages. Because of the many jumps back in time, much of the novel feels like a long prologue to the action that finally unfolds in the last 20 pages or so pages. And with so many characters, readers never really get to know any of them. As a result, they feel like mere props in the author’s larger scheme.

Aspects of Savior’s Day have great potential. But the novel needs a narrower focus before it’s likely to appeal to readers choosing from an already crowded thriller market.

Also available in hardcover and ebook.