In a cleft of rock near Qumran in the Holy Land, Professor John Potts discovers a gold box among some bones.

The box belonged to a Roman centurion Marcus Drusus Scipio. Who was he, and how did he meet his death?

As Potts investigates, the story of Marcus unfolds. He is a man who led a double life - one with his wife and family on a rich estate in Gaul, and another as a serving soldier with his concubine.

Marcus is a man on the edge of great events. He is present at Bethlehem during the Nativity and is also in Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion. He becomes associated associated with Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, with Joseph, the father of Jesus, and also with a woman called Meriem - a whore who later becomes housekeeper to Mary Magdalene...

From his remote 20th Century viewpoint, Potts attempts to piece together not only the portrait of the centurion, but also to disentangle the mystery of his connection with the birth of Christianity.

With a mass of fascinating historical detail, much of which is entirely new, W H Canaway immerses the reader into the 1st Century. But, perhaps even more dramatically, he creates a universe where different worlds and times touch and reverberate with epic intensity.

Books by W H Canaway