In the highly anticipated sequel, New York art dealer John Madison travels to London to purchase at auction a rare seventeenth-century Italian book of fairy tales for an anonymous client. 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 realizes that the only way to find the buyer, recover the lost book, and save his reputation is to immerse himself in the world of European aristocracy and bibliophilic obsession. Along the way, he discovers that a well-loved children's tale contains a necromancer's spell and the truth about an ancient Mesopotamian plague.

 

THE WITCH OF BABYLON features John Madison, a New York art dealer caught up in the aftermath of the looting of the Baghdad Museum. It includes an elaborate puzzle that must be solved in order to locate a missing biblical antiquity and a spectacular lost treasure, as well as alchemy, murder, and the Mesopotamian cult of Ishtar. Alternating between war-torn Baghdad and New York, with forays into ancient Mesopotamian culture, The Witch of Babylon takes readers deep inside the world of Assyriology and its little-known but profound significance for the modern world.

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