Psalm (Carole Towriss) Books in Order

The Psalm series uses a psalm as the starting point for a work of biblical fiction. Carole Towriss's contribution, Deep Calling Deep, takes its title and emotional thread from Psalm 42, then places that longing for hope and peace inside the hard realities of first-century Rome.

The story centers on Sextus Afranius Burrus, Nero's Praetorian Prefect. He has spent his life serving Rome, but the power and honor he once trusted no longer feel secure. His health and career are failing, and he is increasingly drawn to the steady peace of a Jewish prisoner under Roman guard, the apostle Paul.

It is not a quiet setting.

Paul is under house arrest in Rome, awaiting the outcome of his appeal. Timothy comes to care for the man who has become a father figure and spiritual mentor, but he is frightened by the risk surrounding Paul and unsure how to make sense of what is happening. An unexpected crisis makes Paul’s future feel even less certain and places Burrus in a position where distance is no longer easy.

The tension comes from several directions at once. Rome is built on status, force, and loyalty to the empire. Burrus has benefited from that system, while Paul and the growing Christian community represent a belief that does not fit neatly inside it. Timothy's struggle is more personal, rooted in love, fear, and the prospect of losing someone central to his life.

Towriss brings together a historical Roman official and figures from the New Testament without claiming to fill in every blank as fact. The novel imagines what a meeting between Burrus and Paul might have meant, using the known pressures of Roman public life and Paul's imprisonment as its frame.

Readers should expect a compact, character-focused story with spiritual questions at its center. Deep Calling Deep is about people who have reached the limits of their own strength, then have to decide whether peace, mercy, and faith are real enough to trust. Its ancient Rome is tense and politically charged, but the questions of identity, fear, and hope stay very close to the heart.