The Eighth Veil — Frederick Ramsay

The Eighth Veil is a mystery set in the year 28 CE in Jerusalem during the feast of Tabernacles. A murdered servant girl is found in the palace of King Herod Antipas. The Prefect, Pontius Pilate is in attendance. The populace is still buzzing over the brutal death of one of their Prophets, John, known familiarly as the Baptizer, and scandal is in the air.

Pilate does wants no trouble and insists an independent investigation into the murder be made. Antipas will have none of Pilate's men in the palace and Pilate doesn't trust Antipas. Gamaliel, the chief rabbi and head of the Sanhedrin is coerced by Pilate to do the detective work.

Gamaliel is a Talmudic scholar, not a sleuth and at first struggles. But as he learns more of the dead girl's background and that of the other major players in the drama, particularly Menahem, Antipas' foster brother, he soon becomes eon over to the process and, Sherlockian-like, begins to fit the pieces together. Or, as his "Watson" Loukas says, strips the veils from his personal Salome.

The girl turns out not to be the mere servant everyone assumed, in spite of his impatience with the pace and direction of the investigation Pilate is rewarded and the fascinating, little told but critically entwined, histories of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Herod the Great, Anthony and Augustus Caesar, and the Battle of Actium suddenly seems more relevant to the Gospel narratives than anyone might have previously imagined.

Meanwhile, the figure of Jesus, the rabbi from Nazareth, with his ragged band of enthusiasts and his habit of annoying Caiaphas, the High Priest, moves enigmatically in the background.