Mary Rourke

Joanna is a Jewish woman who abandoned her roots for a luxurious life as the wife of Chuza, chief steward to Herod. However she finds her happiness compromised by a deteriorating lung condition. She hears of a mysterious healer called Jesus, and travels to see him. She discovers that his mother, Mary, is her cousin. Mary arranges for Joanna and Jesus to meet - and he heals her.

After her healing she gets a renewed sense of her Jewish heritage, and she becomes a follower of the great teacher, a move fraught with danger in the Roman world that she lives. As Jesus moves toward his fate, Joanna is caught between the Roman world, where her loyalties are in question. Herod is mad - and has no respect for life - or for loyalty - in fact loyalty is often repaid in death.

Mary Rourke tells the Crucifixion story, but from a social point of view - rather than spiritual - she writes about human relationships and the politics of the time is kept in the background - and no doctrine is rammed down the readers throat. It is a very easy to read and gentle tale with a respectable mix of religion, suspense, murder and romance.… (mer)

The two woman are Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Joanna, the wife of the Herod's chief steward Chuza. Joanna only gets a brief mention in the Bible, but here the author has her tell her story in detail. Along the way she does a great job of capturing the historial feel of the first century. Joanna is also a believable character, from her motivation to meet Jesus because of a personal illness to her subsequent support of his ministry. Her life changes drastically, but she finds something she was missing along the way.
The only quibble I had with this book was the words the author put in Jesus' mouth (always a risky proposition). I wasn't sure about the message she seemed to be trying to push there, that it was a genuine "Jesus" message. But of course that is a matter of my own opinion, the rest of the story was wonderful and I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical/Biblical fiction.… (mer)