The Witch of Babylon

Within the first 30 pages, McIntosh had led me so seamlessly from the fall of Ninevah in 612 BCE to the sacking of Iraq in 2003 that I hadn’t realized she had changed scenes, and I was hooked. The Witch of Babylon is an antiquities thriller---like the DaVinci Code, but more interesting and without the million dollar marketing budget. John Madison, an international art dealer, still reeling from the death of his brother Samuel, becomes a murder suspect when his friend Hal turns up dead of a drug overdose, leaving him clues to the location of an ancient Mesopotamian artifact he’d stolen from his brother. In searching for it John becomes entwined in a mystery that threatens his life. Referencing the Bible, the myth of King Midas and ancient Sumeria, The Witch of Babylon is a must read for mystery and history lovers.