As the title indicates, the author of this book explores the dangers and threats that Iberian New Christians (and at least one Old Christian) faced when they preserved crypto-Jewish religious practices and were therefore investigated, persecuted, and prosecuted by the tribunals of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in the Spanish colonies for the offense of heresy. The author used documents located in the archives of Madrid and Mexico as well as published primary sources, together with an array of secondary sources.

The book is organized in five chapters, plus an introduction and a conclusion. The introduction presents the historical setting and the main characteristics of the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition and its procedures, and situates the work in dialogue with current scholarship. Each chapter offers an in-depth study of the trial of faith of an individual. This includes the person's life story, the trial's development, and the specific details of the accusation; the careful exploration of intimate particulars, such as the adherence to kosher dietary rules and/or the practice of circumcision; references to shared practices and rituals; the overall critical analysis of the religious identity of the crypto-Jews; and the final sentence and punishment. Each chapter also incorporates information about the close relatives of the accused, family dynamics, and community associations. By doing so, Warshawsky places each individual story into its historical context. He also explores the impact that some of these cases had in literature and poetry, asking why some cases had such an impact while others did not.

In telling these stories, the author captures the insecurities and ambivalences of crypto-Jews, their interactions with the Tribunal of the Inquisition, their distance from normative Judaism, and the painful development of their experiences. The five cases discussed in this book were tried in the Spanish colonies during the seventeenth century, one by the Lima Tribunal in the Viceroyalty of Peru (Manuel Bautista Pérez) and the rest by the Mexican office in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Tomás Treviño de Sobremonte, Duarte de León Jaramillo, Juan Pacheco de León, and María de Zárate). Of the five trials, one focuses on an Old Christian woman born in New Spain (María de Zárate), while the other four involve New Christian men born in either Spain or Portugal.

This book aligns itself with current scholarship by Yirmiyahu Yovel (The Other within: The Marranos, Split Identity and Emerging Modernity [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009]) and Nathan Wachtel (The Faith of Remembrance: Marrano Labyrinths, trans. Nikki Halpern [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013]). These authors have recently published extensive works on the topic of marranism and crypto-Judaism in both the Old and New World, introducing innovative perspectives that move our understanding beyond exclusive and elusive categorizations. Yovel and Wachtel insist on a nuanced approach, which allows us to connect with the inherent humanity of each of the prisoners of the Inquisition and to avoid the pitfalls of focusing on whether the religious practices documented in inquisitorial trials can be characterized as Jewish, Christian, or neither. Following this perspective, throughout the book Warshawsky's analysis relies on concepts such as inherent dualities, ambiguities, and syncretic hybridization, as he explores the complexities and contradictions that Iberian Crypto-Jews faced during their lives.

This book will interest scholars of Jewish history, Jewish studies, and Inquisition studies, because it expands the existing scholarship on crypto-Judaism and marranism in the Spanish colonies. The chapters are written in a clear and accessible style, and for that reason students unfamiliar with the topic will benefit from reading it. The strength of this book is precisely this: the nuances of crypto-Jewish practices are well presented, and there is a clear sense of methodological finesse in the analysis of Inquisition materials. As Warshawsky states, “[m]uch of the secret Judaism of Iberian conversos consisted of a doing by not doing” (141). As he delves into the cases, he explains why he considers these documents a valid source to study crypto-Jewish practices, and presents an interesting exploration of the inner turmoil experienced by Iberian crypto-Jews. Furthermore, the author discusses the intergenerational conflict inside families with dual practices (as it appears for example in the trials of Duarte de León Jaramillo and Juan Pacheco de León).

A minor weakness in this book is that, although the third colonial tribunal, located in Cartagena of the Indies, is mentioned a few times, none of the chapters is based on information from Cartagena and, as mentioned before, only one case is a trial of the Lima tribunal. Although this probably reflects a void in the available documentation, since the book's title refers to “colonial Hispanic America,” the work could have benefited from a larger discussion of available information from the tribunal of Cartagena and an exploration of the ways in which inquisitorial cases for the heresy of crypto-Judaism conducted by the tribunals of Lima and New Spain during the seventeenth century resonated in the activities of the Cartagena office. In any case, this is a minor comment that does not affect the overall good quality of Warshawsky's contribution.

The Perils of Living the Good and True Law is a new scholarly contribution that improves our understanding of the varied experiences of crypto-Jews living under the surveillance of Inquisition tribunals in the Spanish American colonies.