The Inquest: A Novel of the Greatest Story Never Told

Stephen Dando-Collins

Apr 2014 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

In the time of Vespasian, just after Rome has crushed the Jewish Revolt, Julius Varro, a Roman Questor (an investigating magistrate )is commissioned to investigate the story that a Jew rose from the dead after being crucified in Jerusalem. Because the fast-growing Nazarene sect founded by the martyr's followers is becoming a threat to the stability of the region, there is much riding on debunking the story. Questor Varro has to deal with the evidence that goes back forty years, with most witnesses long dead and the living ones lying to protect themselves. But he is intent on producing a report that will demolish the claims of these religious fanatics. His investigation stirs intrigue, religious passion, and violence, to say nothing of an attraction to a beautiful Jewish slave girl. Questor Varro's report methodically destroys the myth fueling the newborn Christian movement. But then an extraordinary event occurs that changes everything. 

About the author

Australian-born novelist Stephen Dando-Collins trained as a graphic artist and worked as a designer, copywriter, and later senior executive with leading advertising agencies before serving as chief operating officer for Australia at a US market research group. He has been a full-time author, editor, and researcher since 1996, dealing mostly with historical subjects. His acclaimed work of American history, Standing Bear Is a Person, telling the true story of an 1879 Nebraska legal case, was published in 2004. The first in his series of definitive histories of the Roman legions, Caesar’s Legion, based on more than thirty years of research, has found a broad audience around the world since it was published in 2002. The second in the series, Nero’s Killing Machine, was published in 2005, followed by Cleopatra’s Kidnappers in 2006 and Mark Antony’s Heroes in 2007.The Inquest, his debut novel, benefits from his expert knowledge of Rome and the Romans of the first century.