{
    "id": 493645,
    "slug": "desideratas-lost-cause-nick-aaron",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "Desiderata's Lost Cause",
    "subtitle": null,
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": "<p>In AD 76 the first Christian Pope was brutally murdered, and the very survival of the Church was at stake. Desiderata, \u2018seeker of justice\u2019, was entrusted with this daunting challenge: how to solve a murder in a world where homicide is seen as a purely private matter?</p>",
    "description": "<h4><strong>Murder of an early Pope</strong></h4><p>Nerva, the future emperor of Rome, called the Christian faith \u201cDesiderata\u2019s lost cause\u201d. At the time the \u2018Universal Church\u2019 counted only a few thousand faithful rather than untold millions, and he didn\u2019t think it would last, as the Second Coming of the Messiah was looking more and more like a no-show. His blind friend Desiderata would demur and argue.</p><p>Then in AD 76 the first elected Pope was brutally murdered, and Desi realized that the very survival of her faith was at stake. Delegates from all over the empire had come to Rome for the Pope\u2019s ordination, but now suspicion reigned. How could they choose the victim\u2019s successor, while they could be electing his murderer? To restore confidence the killer had to be unmasked urgently.</p><p>However, solving a murder isn\u2019t simple when killing a man is not even a crime according to the law. In the end the \u2018lost cause\u2019 was not the one Desi expected.</p>",
    "additional_content": null,
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    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 248,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "1970-01-01",
    "publication_date_latest": "1970-01-01",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9789083433868",
            "product_form": "BC"
        }
    ],
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    "created_at": "2025-09-19T14:34:29+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-10T00:42:14+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 1787,
        "slug": "-",
        "name": "",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T12:37:05+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:13:47+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 306638,
            "slug": "nick-aaron-2",
            "key_names": "Aaron",
            "names_before_key": "Nick",
            "prefix_to_key": null,
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [
        {
            "scheme_identifier": "32",
            "scheme_version": null,
            "main_subject": false,
            "subject_code": "331",
            "created_at": "2025-09-19T14:34:29+00:00",
            "updated_at": "2025-09-19T14:34:29+00:00"
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}