Yusuf Khalifa

In 523 BC, the Persian pharaoh Cambyses dispatched an army across Egypt's desert to destroy the oracle at Siwa-only for the entire force to be overwhelmed by a sandstorm and lost forever. Two and a half millennia later, a mutilated corpse is washed up on the banks of the Nile at Luxor; an antiques dealer is savagely murdered in Cairo; and a British archaeologist is found dead at an ancient necropolis of Saqqara. The incidents appear unconnected, but Inspector Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor police is suspicious. And so is the archaeologist's daughter, Tara Mullray. Following a trail of clues from both the past and the present, they enter a labyrinth of intrigue, violence, and betrayal. Their desperate search for the truth could lead them to the same fate as Cambyses's long-lost army...

Jerusalem, 70 AD: As the invading Romans destroy the Holy Temple, a young Jewish boy is hidden away-chosen as the guardian of a great secret. And for seventy generations, the secret is kept safe... But now, in order to ignite a new conflict between Israel and the Arab world, a Jewish radical is prepared to reveal what has been hidden for centuries. The only ones who can stop the coming bloodshed are a beautiful young Palestinian journalist and two detectives-one Israeli, one Egyptian-in an unlikely alliance. As their separate searches for the truth intertwine, they discover there are some in this war-torn region who believe true peace can only be found in death...

When journalist Rivka Kleinberg is brutally murdered in a Jerusalem cathedral, it's a complicated case for detective Arieh Ben-Roi. Kleinberg had racked up a wide array of enemies exposing corruption in the halls of power-from international corporations and the Russian mob to the Israeli government. Learning that Kleinberg was working on a story involving Egypt, Ben-Roi enlists the help of his old friend Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor Police. Together they discover something far more sinister than a single murder. Kleinberg was chasing a mystery spanning centuries-a timeless search for an incredible treasure that has cost countless people their lives, and a modern-day conspiracy that now threatens to add Ben-Roi and Khalifa to the tally of the dead.