Book Review: The Roman Mysteries XVI – The Prophet From Ephesus by Caroline Lawrence

“…disappointed that the author took this route now, just when we could be approaching a glorious finale…”

Oh dear.

Okay, let’s get the major criticism out of the way first and then we can talk about this novel on the merits of its writing – the way things should be.

Way back, when I first started reviewing this series, I voiced my fear that these novels for children/young adults would become an opportunity for evangelising young minds with the Christian message. I was aware the author is a Christian herself and that one of the main characters, Jonathan, is a Jewish Christian convert. But that in itself was not unreasonable for the AD 80-ish setting of the books. There were hints that the stories might lean towards “Jesus is your saviour” along the way but, over time, that seemed to decrease and the books seemed to settle into good old Roman history storytelling. I can’t say I wasn’t relieved.

There was a time when I would have been up for it. I was an Evangelical Christian for two decades and it is only over the last fifteen to twenty years that I have struggled with my faith, leading to something of an impasse for the last ten years or so. Back when I was teaching in a Christian school in Bangladesh – where I was first introduced to these books and fell in love with them, along with my daughter – I probably would have been okay with a Christian leaning in the writing. I never got to find out though because the books were banned after a scene of kissing in one of the early books. Such is the joy of working in a religious environment.

Having said that, I was never a great fan of religious novels even when I was ready to ‘give up everything for my Lord and Saviour’. I read one Frank Peretti novel and said never again. I quite liked William P. Young’s The Shack but otherwise honestly can’t say any Christian fiction has really grabbed me, even when young and enthusiastic about my faith.

I don’t have an issue with religious novels – I’ve read plenty of New Age-like books, Eastern philosophical wanderings, Islamic stories and the above-mentioned Christian novels and enjoyed many of them. I have no problems with Lewis and Tolkien writing their Christian allegories (though Tolkien denied that he did). All of these are honest about what they are doing (even if the symbolism in Lord of the Rings is so deeply buried you can study whole degrees trying to unearth it). What I do object to is stories that pretend to be one thing for the majority of their telling and then whip out a Gospel tract at the end and invite you to know the Lord, or Allah, or Buddha and so on.

So I really did hope that Caroline Lawrence had resisted the urge to preach the Gospel. For fifteen books she’d managed it perfectly well; there were only two left to go! Surely the danger was over? Alas, no.

Let me tell you that the titular prophet of this novel really is a prophet – one who performs miracles and changes lives. By the end of the book, several characters will have been affected by this person. If you’re up for that then – great! You’ll enjoy the book. I very much didn’t want to see this and my suspicion is that the final book is going to be equally disappointing for similar reasons.

The Christianity aspect also mired the plot. You couldn’t distance one from the other and so it was hard to appreciate the storyline separate from whatever you feel about the religious bit. That said, the story was a cracking good yarn for most of the book – it is in the latter half that we finally meet the prophet himself and find out he’s not part of the shady child-stealing gang I had hypothesised he was. He has nothing to do with the actual ‘mystery’ the four child detectives are trying to solve but somehow derails it nonetheless.

There’s a feeling of trying to do too much in this novel and I suspect this is because Lawrence was ready to bring the series to an end and had/has loose ends to tie up. We’re dealing with all of our heroes still on the run from the emperor who wants them dead, but that storyline seems somewhat deflated here. Then there’s their old enemies still stealing children but this rapidly turns into the hunt for one of Jonathan’s dead sister’s twin babies as, bizarrely, another line separate to the others. And all four main characters have their long-running woes largely either about thwarted love or guilt for past wrongdoings. Plot spoiler: none of these are resolved in this book – it is clear all of them will be drawn to a close in the final instalment.

The result of all this is that I feel very disappointed the author took this route now, just when we could be approaching a glorious finale. As we reach the very final story still to come, I’m more anxious than ever that it will be a waste of time. If it can be summed up as ‘And they all lived happily ever after in the name of their gracious Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’ then I will feel somewhat cheated. Still, maybe I will be wrong? Lawrence is still a great storyteller and I thoroughly enjoyed entering this Roman world just as I have from the very start. But as someone who is about to be a grandfather and has one eye on the books on my shelf, used for my own two children and ready to be used for the grandbabby, I’m not sure I will want to either read these books to the child or suggest they read them for themselves when they’re older. Unless they’ve embraced the faith already by then (and fine if they do), I will feel like I’m knowingly leading them into a cult.

My verdict:

Read all the reviews for this series:

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 7.9 million times.

Get a free trial and 20% off Shortform by clicking here. Shortform is a brilliant tool and comes with my highest recommendation.

Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing)