A pulse-pounding, roller coaster of an adventure.

When the body of hotel owner Jan Weiss is discovered at Malqata, an archeological site on the west bank of the Nile, it looks like a routine investigation for Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police. But the more the detective finds out about Weiss, the more he is reminded of the brutal killing of an Israeli woman at Karnak years ago -- a murder for which he has always suspected the wrong man had been convicted. Despite opposition from his superiors and his own misgivings about working with the Israelis, Khalifa re-opens the case and teams up with hard-nosed Jerusalem detective Arieh Ben Roi.

At the same time journalist Eva Town receives an anonymous letter at her Jerusalem home. It requests her help in contacting “Al-Mulassam” (“The Veiled One”), a Palestinian extremist leader she has recently interviewed; in return it offers her the scoop of a lifetime.

Against a backdrop of escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians, Eva follows up the cryptic letter while Khalifa and Arieh slowly uncover the unpleasant truth about Jan Weiss. Their investigations intertwine as they all get further in to the web of duplicity and intrigue that has at its center an ancient artifact of such potent symbolism that it could plunge the Middle East into an all-out war.

From the Trade Paperback edition.