Timaeus the Tracker — Larry Winebrenner

When the most famous private investigator in the Roman Empire was asked by the acting governor of Judea to accomplish an assignment, the Tracker---as all such private investigators of the time were called---liked neither the assignment nor the man who made it.

For one thing, the poor shepherdess who saved his life and nursed him back to health, awaited him. Although he was immensely wealthy and his background that of the highest social class, he was going to ask her to marry him. Would she accept? She hated wealthy people. She just didn't know he was wealthy.

But this assignment stood in the way. It didn't help that the Zealot rebels thought he was working for Rome to defeat them. They wanted him dead. He believed that completion of the assignment would also mean death, so that the matter would remain secret.

The book weaves through the Roman machinations with the help both of the provinces most beautiful and popular prostitute, and of the Zealots who want him dead, and some biblical figures familiar to biblical scholars.

Though the story is set in the city that became Jesus's home after leaving Nazareth, it takes place before his move to that city and he does not appear in the novel.

The novel is an action-filled adventure and romance.