The Soldier Who Killed a King by David Kitz

Book description:

A stunning story of Holy Week through the eyes of a Roman centurion 

Watch the triumphal entry of the donkey-riding king through the eyes of Marcus Longinus, the centurion charged with keeping the streets from erupting into open rebellion.

Look behind the scenes at the political plotting of King Herod, known as the scheming Fox for his ruthless shrewdness.

Get a front-row seat to the confrontation between the Jewish high priest Caiaphas and the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.

Understand as never before the horror of the decision to save a brutal terrorist in order to condemn the peaceful Jew to death.

If you've heard the story of Passion Week so often it's become stale, now is the time to rediscover the terrible events leading from Jesus's humble ride into the city to his crucifixion. The Soldier Who Killed a King will stun you afresh with how completely Christ's resurrection changed history, one life at a time.

My review:

  I like it when an author takes a real historical person that not much is known about, and writes a book about them. We don't know much about the centurion who said "surely this man was the Son of God" when Jesus died, but David Kitz spins a story around the little we know to make a great and interesting read.

 The book starts out before the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, and goes a little beyond His resurrection. In between those pages, the author tells the true events while weaving into the story his idea of what the centurion may have been like both before and after the crucifixion. We read the Biblical account over and over, and I found this book takes a refreshing new look at the events of Holy Week. I don't feel the author did any disservice to the Bible account. I have never read any books by Kitz, but I found the book to be a riveting and interesting read. And though some of it is fictional, he did a great job of filling in the holes with his idea of what we don't know.


I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

About the author:

David Kitz is a Bible dramatist, an award winning author, a convention speaker and a retired public school teacher. For over twenty-five years, he has served as an ordained minister with the Foursquare Gospel Church of Canada.

David has a Master’s degree in Biblical Studies, in addition to Bachelor’s degrees in both Arts and Education. His love for drama and storytelling is evident to all who have seen his Bible based performances. For several years now, he has toured across Canada and into the United States with a variety of one man plays for both children and adults. Though born and raised in Saskatchewan, David now lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife Karen. They have two adult sons, Timothy and Joshua.


The Soldier Who Killed a King is available from Kregel Publishing.

Thanks to Kregel for the review copy.