For fans of Francine Rivers, Kate Mosse, Tessa Aftshar and Jenifer Jennings…comes this riveting tale of the life and death struggle of a woman facing calamity in AD 33.

In a time of miracles and demons a woman like Rachel has no right to life. She is enslaved in a brothel, with no prospect of love and freedom, until a young girl is abducted and placed in her care. Rachel’s escape with the child, determined to return her to her family, commences a gripping page turning account of a chase across Galilee to Capernaum.

Along the journey Rachel meets the followers of the strange Healer. One man in particular, Thomas, seeks to help her. But Rachel, so damaged by the past, faces an even greater battle to rescue the young woman inside herself who for so long has been denied love and care.

Who can rescue Rachel? And will it be too late?

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There's a lot of Bible fanfiction out there. Some of it has become classic literature; some is just a mess. So on approaching The Thief, the Harlot and the Healer, I was cautious. There are all sorts of ways a Biblical narrative, especially a New Testament one, can go wrong. Go too far in the direction of either hard criticism or apologia can ignore important historical and cultural context.

In fairness, M.E. Clements's book is written so a broad modern audience can understand and engage with it. That said, it examines the last days of Jesus as grounded in the world in which he lived: one in which people were looking for a very specific kind of Messiah, and may well have been disappointed by the kind they got. Or, in the case of protagonist Rachel, they may not have wanted a Messiah at all—in fact, the very idea of what he was offering might come across as insulting.

Rachel is an unwilling member of a brothel. Many year ago her daughter, Anna, was stolen from her by the thief Boataz. As the book opens, this same thief brings a new child to the same brothel: Mina, the teenage  daughter of a well-off family. Rachel is desperate to save Mina from the life she's been forced into and, with the help of the madam and some alleged allies, the woman and the girl make their escape. However, Mina's absence has been noted, and her family seems keen to pin the blame for her disappearance on Rachel.

This is only part of the story, thought. The "Healer" of the title is, of course, Jesus—or "Yeshua," as he would have been called at the time. There's no Renaissance reimagining here. Yeshua is a simple man with worn hands and a kind personality. The fact that he has no plans to violently overthrow the Romans and create an earthly kingdom bothers many people. 

But what bothers Rachel is what he's really here to do. As a woman who has been hurt and taken advantage of by men all her life, the idea that she's broken and should go to a strange man to be healed is insulting, to say the least. It's an insightful angle, and one that takes into account how even the most well-meaning witnessing can come across to a person who's been through hell on earth.

The Thief, the Harlot and the Healer is a compelling read, even divorced from its deeper spirituality. With an intriguing story that weaves in and out of history and scripture, it's a page-turner that will keep you enthralled until the final page.

This blog post is part of a book tour sponsored by The Book Network.