The Venetian Betrayal

After narrowly escaping incineration in, a devastating fire that consumes a Danish museum, Cotton Malone -- former Justice Department agent turned rare-book dealer -- learns from his friend, the beguiling adventurer Cassiopeia Vitt, that the blaze was neither an accident nor an isolated-incident. As part of a campaign of arson intended to mask a far more diabolical design, buildings across Europe are being devoured by infernos of unnatural strength. Born from the ashes is a new Eastern European nation whose ruthless leader will soon draw Cotton into an intense geopolitical chess game against a shadowy cabal of power brokers. The prize lies buried with the mummified remains of Alexander the Great -- in a tomb lost to the 'ages for more than two thousand years: Trekking from Denmark to Venice to Central Asia, Cotton and Cassiopeia are determined to solve an ancient puzzle whose solution could destroy or save millions of people -- depending on who finds the lost tomb first.