A God For The Killing

The Age

Saturday October 25, 2008

Cameron Woodhead

A God for the Killing

Kain Massin

ABC Books, $32.95

WINNER OF THIS year's ABC Fiction prize, Kain Massin's A God for the Killing is a speculative reimagining of the Passion of Christ. Enter Judith, a Roman slave trained to seduce and assassinate enemies of the Empire. We meet her on the field, plotting to murder a Barbarian shaman. Mission complete, Judith returns to Rome, where she is ordered to Judea. Her next target is Joshua, whom the people have styled as a new Messiah - he also happens to be Judith's childhood sweetheart from Nazareth. Judith finds her victim only too willing to die, and begins to use her influence not to kill him, but to aid his cause. After a promising opening (which lives up to its Nikita-meets-the-Gospels potential), the novel soon becomes flat and telegraphic. Characters are sketched rather than drawn; their motives and psychology only occasionally progress into something complex enough to be interesting. At times it feels as though the author is writing around the story rather than telling it.

© 2008 The Age

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