Reviews

"[R]emarkably intelligent and richly provocative: at once a compelling detective story, a creative hermeneutic enterprise and a tour de force of biblical deconstruction. . . . [It] is concerned not with discovering the truth of Scripture but with rigorously analyzing its contradictions and lacunas. Steering clear of both sanctimony and heresy, it challenges and enlarges our understanding of the crucial texts of Western culture and of the primordial impulses upon which both that culture and its texts are based." --New York Times Book Review

"An unusual novel [blending] scriptural interpretation, theology and fiction, this book will appeal to those who are interesting in serious religious literature." --Library Journal

An unusual novel in which Dupin, the detective of Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue, reflects on the case of Judas Iscariot. Finding Judas ``mythologically indispensable'' in authenticating Jesus as the Son of God, he offers provocative reflections on what he terms ``God's history,'' the role of Satan, and the nature of Jesus' divinity and humanity. He characterizes Jesus' relationship with his betrayer as both ``absurd'' and ``a dialogue of tormenting mental uncertainty.'' A blend of scriptural interpretation, theology, and fiction, this book will appeal to those who are interested in serious religious literature. Also for collections of modern European fiction.-- Kathleen Norris, Lemmon P.L., S.D.

"[R]emarkably intelligent and richly provocative: at once a compelling detective story, a creative hermeneutic enterprise and a tour de force of biblical deconstruction. . . . [It] is concerned not with discovering the truth of Scripture but with rigorously analyzing its contradictions and lacunas. Steering clear of both sanctimony and heresy, it challenges and enlarges our understanding of the crucial texts of Western culture and of the primordial impulses upon which both that culture and its texts are based." --New York Times Book Review
"An unusual novel [blending] scriptural interpretation, theology and fiction, this book will appeal to those who are interesting in serious religious literature." --Library Journal