This Dark Heart

The last years of King Herod the Great’s reign are turbulent, the public splendour of his many architectural projects belying the rotten core of his private life. His extended family is riven with jealousy, suspicion and hatred. Into this dangerous environment Simon, the only son of one of King Herod’s favoured bodyguards, who cherishes an ambition to become an architect instead of following in his father’s footsteps, is inexorably drawn.

Scholars and others may disagree about whether the Ma...