Abigail

By Jill Eileen Smith

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As the second wife of the soon-to-be-king David of ancient biblical times, Abigail must contend with hardships and inner turmoil that she thinks she’s ready to manage, but which cause her to think again… and again. It gets worse as David starts accumulating wives, all of them struggling to attract—and keep—his attention, in between battles and politicking with other rulers. But Abigail is the only one who shares his deep love and trust in God (Adonai), so she has a stronger hold on his heart even though she isn’t often convinced that’s the case.

The age-old story of King David and his tumultuous reign has given rise recently to numerous novels presenting his wives with a wide variety of interesting personalities as their own stories are teased out of the spare mention of them in the Old Testament. Ms. Smith has already published the first in this series (Michal), and presumably there’s a third on the way (I’m guessing Bathsheba, given the chronology). Abigail is very much in the genre of inspirational Christian fiction, despite the Old Testament setting, with its focus on trust and faith in God amidst the daily striving for marital/domestic/personal happiness. While the storyline is reasonably interesting in itself, Smith’s writing is unremarkable and even pedestrian—far too much “telling” in long descriptive passages and bland dialogue that never quite rises above a plodding pace to inspire real interest in the characters.