The Pharisee’s Wife by Janette Oke

The Pharisee’s Wife by Janette Oke
Series: a standalone
Publisher: Tyndale (March 11, 2025)

REVIEW BY PRISCILLA BETTIS

I scored an advance copy of Janette Oke’s next book, The Pharisee’s Wife. You’ve probably heard of Oke. She practically started the whole inspirational fiction category all by herself. Well, practically. An editor and a publisher or two were involved, and other writers followed closely on her coattails. Seventy books, a television series, and two movies later, she’s still going strong. She’s 89.

Far from hanging up her pen, Oke is showing the world that we humans can be prolific authors even as the years advance. She’s not only still writing, she’s also trying out new things, exploring other genres. Oke is known for her historical Canadian/Americana fiction and historical romance stories, but her new novel is in a genre she’s never written before: Biblical fiction.

The Pharisee’s Wife is about a teenager named Mary. It’s AD 33, the year Jesus died (so she’s not Jesus’s mother, not that Mary). Because an up-and-coming Pharisee spots the beautiful teenager and is determined to make her his wife, Mary gets a front-row seat to the turmoil Jesus causes in the Jewish and Roman communities.

Poor Mary, her new husband is a pompous jerk:

He did hope that the upcoming Passover would bring more life back to the city. At least the visiting commoners who crowded the city over the Passover season could be counted on to view the Pharisees with admiration and a bit of envy. That had been missing for far too long.
-Janette Oke, The Pharisee’s Wife

Heebie-jeebies, right?!

Anyway, Biblical fiction is not the only new thing Oke is exploring. She’s leaping into non-traditional story structure, too. In her author’s notes at the end of the book, she says those readers who expect a plot climax (and subsequent denouement) “may find it lacking in this story.” Instead, Oke attempts to point to “the climax of God’s great plan … still in the future.”

In fact, the last third of the book is largely a narrative summary covering decades in time. Children are born, grow up, and have their own children. Parents wither and die. The plot thins to dust and spreads as if blown by the wind in Mary’s desert landscape. The effect of Oke’s narration suggests vastness not only throughout Mary’s life, but also into the centuries that follow. In that sense, Oke succeeds in thrusting the story’s ultimate climax into our future.

I’m not sure, though, that readers acquainted with Oke’s plucky heroines, enemies-to-lovers tropes, American pioneer settings in the 1800s, and happily-ever-after endings will buy into this new type of story. She raises questions that are unresolved at the end. The opposite of a happily-ever-after ending is not a tragic ending but an unresolved ending. What is the purpose of life? When will Jesus return? Will governments around the world ever allow religious freedom?

Even as I type this, I’m still not sure how many fish I’ll give The Pharisee’s Wife. Five fish for Oke’s ability to connect the reader with the characters so that the characters’ pain and joy are palpable? Three fish for a strong sense of time and place due to Oke’s evocative descriptions but with an ending that left me uncomfortable and wanting more? Something in between? At any rate, kudos to Oke for not settling for the easy route in her older years. I look forward to whatever she writes next.

The Pharisee’s Wife is available for pre-order. I read an advanced copy through NetGalley.