THE CROSSES AT ZARIN

This novel is based upon the gospel narratives of the crucifixion of Jesus and tells the story, in that context, of a biblical family--that of the apostles James and John. The protagonist is Zebedee, father of the apostles, and it is from his somewhat oblique angle that the classic plot unfolds. (Zebedee is not, of course, the hero of the piece, that role being reserved, in the best de Mille tradition, for an offstage Presence.) The storyline seems of perennial interest, and it may be said to Miss Mosley's credit that her narrative and descriptive powers are considerably superior to those of most of her competitors in this rather overworked field. The book's major flaws are the frequently cloying pietisms that serve to take the reader back, not to the first century but to the nineteenth, and the curious quality of the dialogue, which is a peculiar mishmash of standard English, as it would have been spoken by Hebrews whose working-tongue was Aramaic, and early twentieth-century colloquialisms. Nonetheless, the book is, on the whole, passable and the reader with a taste for inspirational fiction will find it to his taste.