It has been said that having a library card is like having access to a time machine for with it you can go to the past, the future and to times you never imagined. Roger W. Carr’s novel "A Thieves Tale: The Persian Dagger" is a time machine to the first and second century A.D. With meticulous research, Carr has recreated the world of twenty centuries ago so thoroughly that the reader looks up from the book expecting to see a Roman Centurion standing nearby.

The story opens with two angels (a la "It’s a Wonderful Life"?) who are seeing two men on earth in prison. Rankin—who seems to be a somewhat junior angel—asks Ahrist who the two men in prison are. Opening a book, Ahrist begins to "read" the story of the two men. "Read" may not be the exact word, because Rankin and Ahrist see the story, somewhat like watching a movie, but maybe more like being in a holodeck.

The story is of Lucius and Thomas, young boys conscripted into the Roman army and taught fighting skills for years until they are sent on a quest. As the title suggests, they have been trained to be expert thieves—but with weapons training that will allow them to fight their way out of anywhere, should they be caught. Their training is cruel, which provides a counterpoint to the training they receive later in life.

This is a Christian novel, after all, and the two heroes do become Christian heroes. Inspired by the narrative it would be fun to have a debate: were the hardships Thomas and Lucius endured God’s training ground for what He would call them to do later, or were the two boys rescued by God from schemes of the devil’s making? Is the truth somewhere in between?

Without giving too much away in this review, the story will carry you along as you wonder, "How can these two guys be redeemed?!?!"

As mentioned above, Carr has done an amazing amount of research to recreate the world Thomas and Lucius inhabit. The book has a crisp pace, both in the writing itself and in the pace of narrative. If Ted Dekker or Toma Clancy or some other popular writer told this story, it would have been eight times this length, but not any better, for much of modern novel writing has lost the ability to tell a concise tale.

There are some typographical issues within the book that are occasionally distracting, but not overly so. The story is excellently told, the manuscript just needed an extra set of eyes (for things the average word processor misses, like using "there" when it should have been "their" or a missing comma).

Find this book and read it for yourself. It’ll open your eyes to the centuries in which the church got started, it’ll entertain you, and it’ll make you appreciate the life you’ve had.