Paul's admonition to the Colossians that they ‘read also the letter from Laodicea’ (Colossians iv.16) led to at least two attempts to ‘discover’ that letter: one, according to the Muratorian fragment, forged in Paul's name to further the heresy of Marcion, the other copied in Codex Fuldensis (546 ce) and in some later manuscripts. The present book seeks to salvage Laodiceans not only from its subsequent neglect in modern scholarship, but also from the verdict of mediocrity which contemporary interpreters have accorded to it. Far from being a patchwork vacuously compiled by a scissors-and-paste man of mean intelligence, Laodiceans is, according to Tite, a carefully constructed literary composition quite at home in the Second Sophistic. In this monograph's favour is that it is certainly the most extended treatment of the contents of the text. (The author notes, but does not engage in, discussion of the textual history of the work, since he considers that this has dominated scholarship on Laodiceans too much already.) The exegesis of this apocryphon is undertaken in minute detail. The whole text is only about 250 Latin words in length (about the length of this paragraph), making Tite's short monograph feel relatively long. Ten pages are devoted, for example, to the prescript with Paul's address and greeting (‘Paul, an Apostle not from mortals nor through mortals, but through Jesus Christ, to the brethren who are in Laodicea. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’) The pace does not quicken thereafter, with the next chapter treating the shorter introductory thanksgiving on pp. 29–41. These two chapters (ii–iii) as well as chapters iv–vi constitute the main body of this book, and pursue the detailed rhetorical analysis of Laodiceans. The introduction contains a helpful review of research, highlighting the fact that scholarship has been dominated by the ‘patchwork’ view. Even if this reviewer is not convinced that Laodiceans reaches the level of literary sophistication assigned to it by Tite, it is nevertheless helpful to have the details of the text given such close attention. The bibliography is also impressively extensive, and the author is clearly familiar with the range of scholarship in all the major languages. Two appendices contain a text with translation, and discussion of the date. Unfortunately, the text and translation are not reliable. There are mistakes in the transcription: salute for salutem (7), vestries for vestris (7), administrante spiritum sanctum for either –em –um –um (Ranke), or –e –u –o (so Lightfoot) (7), acceptistis for accepistis (16), and fraters for fratres (17). In the translation, there are various inconcinnities: ‘a veritate evangelii’ is rendered ‘from the true gospel’ (4), while the phrase ‘veritatis evangelii’ in the next verse is ‘of the truth of the gospel’. Salus is first ‘well-being’ (5) and later ‘salvation’ (7) where there is no apparent difference in sense. In verse 8 vere (in some manuscripts vivere) is left untranslated, while the syntax in verse 9 in misinterpreted. As far as the dating is concerned, Tite wisely admits that his location of Laodiceans in the first half of the second century is far from certain, but even this may be overconfident given that his main reason for this date is that the warnings against deceptive charlatans fit best in this time-frame. It is questionable whether such a perennial rhetorical trope can be of much use as a chronological marker, however. The two warnings to this effect in the letter, ‘neque destituant vos quorundam vaniloquia insinuantium’ (4) and ‘praecavete sordidos in lucro’ (13) are in any case very generalising. Nevertheless, this monograph is still useful as a starting point for those investigating this apocryphal Pauline curiosity, both for Tite's arguments that it cannot be so dismissed, as well as for his guide to existing research on the text.