Adventure story, a gripping book in Biblical setting (5)
I believe the answer is:
sheba
'biblical setting' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'adventure story a gripping book' is the wordplay.
'adventure story' becomes 'She' (novel by H Rider Haggard).
'gripping' indicates putting letters inside (inserted letters are gripped).
'book' becomes 'b' (abbreviation for book).
'she'+'a'='shea'
'shea' enclosing 'b' is 'SHEBA'.
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sheba that I've seen before include "Biblical kingdom" , "Biblical queendom" , "Its queen arrived" , "ancient land" , "Biblical queen's land" .)