Doctor Luke's Assistant

Author: David A. Todd
Genre: Biblical Fiction

Luke, the beloved physician, returns to Israel to write a massive biography of Jesus. He hires a Jewish assistant, Augustus, to help him as a researcher, secretary, and scribe. Luke's work is opposed by both the Roman government and the Jewish authorities. He runs afoul of an ambitious Roman, who does his best to restrict Luke from completing the work.

Augustus is conscientious, but somewhat of a bumbler in his work. He becomes enamored with a girl in the Jerusalem church. To win her affections he finds a way to obtain the release of her dad from prison—except in doing so he breaks the law and Luke is blamed for it. The work almost comes to a halt.

It continues, however, as Luke and Augustus spend much time in Judea and Galilee, finding witnesses, interviewing them, looking at time and space issues with Jesus' life. The biography is finished after three years. Luke's nemesis in the government, however, has different plans.

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Reviewer: Camille Murray

I’m sorry to have to give this book such a poor review, because I realize the author is trying to do a good thing with his writing. When I first read the back cover, I was intrigued by the concept, and was excited to see what the author did with it.
 
Sadly, instead of a compelling historical fiction novel, I found the book was mainly a comparison of some of the Gospels and an exploration of what methods might have been used in Luke’s research. What little plot there was existed mainly in the latter half of the book, and even there it was thinly scattered and not used to its full advantage. Neither did the dialogue or characterization do anything to hold my interest, both of these being pretty flat.
 
So, while I appreciate the author’s attempts, I’m going to have to honestly say that I would never have finished reading this book except that I was determined to review it.

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