The second installment of The Vatican Chronicles, THE ANONYMOUS SCRIBE is an excellent follow-on to THE MYSTERY OF JULIA EPISCOPA. It continues the tale of Yeshua as told by his contemporary chronicler known first as Young Scribe, then simply as Scribe. The son of a Jewish family, trained in his craft at the Temple in Jerusalem, Scribe tells us, in his own words, of his gradual conversion to the ways of the Christian sect. His assignment, upon graduation from Temple training, is to collect paid testimony from those people who have heard Yeshua speak. He finds nothing in the teachings to be counter to religious law.

Once again, the archaeologists Valentina Vella and Erika Simone, disgraced in THE MYSTERY OF JULIA EPISCOPA by the machinations of the Roman Catholic Church, are caught up in international intrigue surrounding a rumored Secret Temple Scroll (STS).

Anyone with an interest in religious history will find the books in The Vatican Chronicles a compelling and thought-provoking treatise on the what ifs… what if there are written documents contemporary with the life of Yeshua? … what if the Gospels, written decades after the crucifixion, are not the oldest records of the life of Yeshua? … what if the teachings of Yeshua put women on an equal footing with men? Like Dan Brown's books featuring Robert Langdon, The Vatican Chronicles paint a picture of the Catholic church putting it on a par with any secular government. Crime and corruption are prominent at the highest levels of power because if they practiced the teachings, their church, their wealth, and their power would crumble.

Although THE ANONYMOUS SCRIBE, does not end on a cliffhanger, it is obvious that there is more to the story.
I would have preferred a tome rather than a series (trilogy?) to eliminate the need to repeat portions of one book in another, and to present the tale as a cohesive whole.