The thrilling conclusion to the Mesopotamian trilogy about the origin of angels and the real location of the lost Garden of Eden In 2011, D.J. McIntosh took the book world by storm with her bestselling debut novel, The Witch of Babylon.
Praised by The Globe and Mail for its "stellar research" and "superb writing," it introduced readers to John Madison, a rakish New York art dealer who uncovered a fabulous treasure trove of antiquities in the hills outside Baghdad and the truth behind a famous story long believed to be a myth.
In this highly anticipated conclusion, Madison is hired by a famous magician to find a rare sixteenth century book on angel magic and the former assistant who stole it thirty-five years ago. Madison's quest leads him from the great mosques and churches of Istanbul to the ruins of Pergamon and the temples of the ancient Near East, where he discovers the true location of the Garden of Eden, the nature of angels, and the dark story of his birth.
In this highly anticipated sequel, John Madison travels to London to purchase at auction a rare seventeenth-century Italian book of fairy tales for an anonymous client. Madison is warned about the book's malevolent history; but before he can deliver it to the buyer, he is robbed by a mysterious man claiming to be the book's author. When his client disappears and the book's provenance is questioned, Madison must immerse himself in the world of European artistocracy and rare book collectors. As the dark origins of certain fairy tales appear to come to life around him, Madison discovers that a well-loved children's story contains a necromancer's spell and points to the source of a deadly Mespotamian plague.
D.J. McIntosh's The Witch of Babylon won an Arthur Ellis Award prior to its publication. Here Turkish-American art dealer John Madison gets caught up in a deadly conspiracy involving a stolen aritfact stretching from ancient Mesopotamia to modern-day Iraq. Aided by an archaeologist and a photojournalist, John navigates a tricky landscape filled with thieves, killers, and men with dark secrets, all while unearthing the startling history of alchemy.