The Serpent and the Staff

A historical romance set in Old Testament-era, Wood%E2%80%99s (Domina) latest novel, traces the travails of Elias the Vintner%E2%80%99s family through the fall of Jericho and to coastal metropolis Ugarit, Syria%E2%80%94where the drama and intrigue have only just begun. The story%E2%80%99s heroine is the gentle and down-to-earth Leah, Elias%E2%80%99s 19 year-old daughter. Having rejected Jotham the Shipbuilder%E2%80%99s affections and attracting his obsessive hatred instead, Leah is looking to cure the %E2%80%9Cfalling sickness,%E2%80%9D his family affliction, as a peace offering. In the process, Leah falls in love with Daveed, a quiet scribe of royal lineage whose destiny seems always to be at a cross-purpose with her own. The prose is at times embarrassingly purple%E2%80%94billowing fabrics and bracelets jangle on slim wrists in the perfumed evening breeze, but the plot and pacing are masterful, and there is enough sex, betrayal, murder, and intrigue to keep the most skeptical readers breathlessly turning pages. Wood skillfully envisions a society set in biblical times, with people-trading, marrying and scheming in a thriving coastal town at the center of ancient trade routes, rendered in soft focus but with marvelous clarity and complexity. (Nov.)