Thrones in the Desert

by Doug Peterson Book 1 in the Kingdom Come series.

First published 2024

Amazon

4.6(1,436)

Five fictional lives intersect with the opening twelve chapters of Luke’s Gospel. Eliana, the daughter of a Zealot, is joined by a tax collector, an enslaved woman, a palace guard and a Pharisee whose ambitions and loyalties are disrupted as John the Baptist preaches and Jesus begins his ministry.

The novel places its ensemble within the religious divisions, taxation, imperial power and social hierarchies of Roman Judaea. Each character must reconsider what rules his or her life, giving the biblical language of overturned thrones a personal form while clearly presenting a Christian interpretation rather than an independent historical biography of Jesus.