Acts of the Assassins

July 25, 2016
In this highly unusual mix of biblical stories and modern fantasy from Beard (Dry Bones), Pontius Pilate charges Cassius Gallio, the military policeman who was responsible for guarding the corpse of Jesus, with finding Jesus’s missing body. When Gallio makes no progress, Pilate orders him to increase the pressure on the disciples to talk. Gallio promises protection to Judas, but Judas winds up murdered, his death made to look like a suicide. Blamed for Judas’s death, Gallio is exiled. Gallio is later recalled to Jerusalem, the “Jesus case” is reopened, and the search for Jesus and his disciples begins anew. Though the time is now the present, most of the disciples are still alive, and Gallio joins forces with an Israeli investigator to track the survivors. The trail finally reaches John and Peter. Beard’s sharp humor drives this mind-bending, time-compressing tale.