Murder at the Museum of Natural History

THE ROAD TO RUIN

Lieutenant Bill Donovan's passion for antiquities lures him to the gala opening of an exhibition of priceless artifacts excavated along the ancient Silk Road--the legendary trade route that stretched from Cathay to the West.

Tragically, murder crashes the party when archaeologist Paolo Lucca is found brutally stabbed with a 1000-year-old dagger once owned by Kublai Khan. While suspicion falls on the victim's gorgeous supermodel wife who just inherited a king's ransom, Donovan can't ignore an international list of enemies that includes Mideast fundamentalists and Russian mobsters.

A trail of blackmail, bribery and corruption as rough and perilous as the Silk Road itself leads Donovan to an old but universal truth: the path to riches might be the one that gets you dead.