The Messiah Business

By Robert Jeschonek

Con man Zalmon and his gang of grifters fleece followers of Jesus Christ in biblical Galilee...until Vashti, a beautiful face from the past, makes an offer they can’t refuse: unless the grifters kidnap an Apostle, their crimes will be exposed to Christ and his army of disciples. Vashti plans to use the Apostle as leverage to get Christ to raise her lover from the dead, like Lazarus...but things don’t go exactly as she plans. Abduction leads to bloodshed, as Zalmon makes desperate choices, and powerful forces collide in a timeless struggle on the sands of Galilee.

Don’t miss this shocking biblical crime thriller, named an Honorable Mention in the 2016 edition of Year's Best Crime & Mystery Stories.

Reviews

"Robert Jeschonek is a towering talent." – Mike Resnick, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author

"Robert Jeschonek is the literary love child of Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman—his fiction is cutting edge, original, and pulsing with dark and fantastical life. His stories suck me in and refuse to let me go until the last page..." – Adrian Phoenix, critically acclaimed author of The Maker's Song series and Black Dust Mambo

"Jeschonek ́s stories are delightfully insane, a pleasure to read..." – Fabio Fernandes, Fantasy Book Critic

About the Author

Robert Jeschonek is an award-winning author whose fiction, comics, essays, and nonfiction have been published around the world. From his childhood writing Sherlock Holmes and Rockford Files fanfic to his recent Batman comics for DC Comics and his Polka Princess cozies, his passion for mystery fiction in all its flavors has never stopped raging. His work has appeared in Fiction River, Postscripts, PodCastle, and other publications. His biblical mystery, “The Messiah Business,” was named an honorable mention in the 2016 edition of Year's Best Crime & Mystery Stories. He has won an International Book Award and a Scribe Award for Best Original Novel from the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Jeschonek
• Release date: Dec 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370343805

Book preview

The Messiah Business

The Messiah Business

A Biblical Mystery Tale

Robert Jeschonek

Pie Press

Contents

Also by Robert Jeschonek

The Messiah Business

About the Author

Special Preview: The Masked Family

THE MESSIAH BUSINESS

---

Copyright © 2020 by Robert Jeschonek

www.robertjeschonek.com

---

Cover Art Copyright © 2020 by Ben Baldwin

www.benbaldwin.co.uk

---

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

---

Published in November 2011 by arrangement with the author.

All rights reserved by the author.

---

A Pie Press book

Pie Press Publishing logo

Published by Pie Press Publishing

411 Chancellor Street

Johnstown, Pennsylvania 15904

www.piepresspublishing.com

Also by Robert Jeschonek

Crimes in the Key of Murder

Six Crime Stories Volume One

The First Detect-Eve

The Masked Family

The Other Waiter

The Messiah Business

I never met Jesus Christ. I followed him around for about six months, making a nice living off him all that time, but I never talked to the guy.

I almost tangled with him, though, thanks to Vashti. It was all her idea, that scumsucking piece of work.

Leave it to her to think of kidnapping an apostle. And leave it to me--Zalmon, dope of the century--to be dumb enough to go along with it.

Before Vashti mucked everything up--and not for the first time, either--the gang and I were doing real well with our chosen field. The messiah business has always been a good one around these parts, but it was never better than when Christ was making the rounds.

I wish I could go back to those days, before things fell apart. Looking back, they were some of the best days of my life...right before some of the worst.

And it was all thanks to Christ. He had a real way about him, you know? Had lots of charisma. And he really knew how to draw a crowd. A big crowd, like a flock of sheep swarming around a shepherd.

Which the gang and I would proceed to fleece in every possible way.

People say Christ performed miracles, but let me tell you about the real magicians and the good work they did.

Huldah wasn't much to look at, a mousey type with stringy black hair and a constant sad look on her face...but she was the best pickpocket I've ever met. While Christ made his latest inspired speech, Huldah worked the crowd like a shadow, lifting coins from pockets and purses without ever drawing attention.

Asher was our