Joab

Joab was the principal military commander of King David. He wins campaigns for David and suppresses rebellions, but his independent use of violence—including the killings of Abner, Absalom and Amasa—makes him both indispensable and dangerous to the monarchy.

Geraldine Brooks’s The Secret Chord places Joab within a narrative shaped by political ambition and government, crime, espionage and covert power, and court politics and dynastic power.