While visiting Israel, archaeologist and museum curator Lisa Donahue finds an ancient papyrus, part of a lost first century AD codex on the teachings of Jesus' female disciples. Lisa teams up with her ex-boyfriend Gregory Manzur, racing to find the rest of the codex ahead of Christian fanatics who will kill to prevent the codex's publication. Told from multiple points of view, this mystery/suspense story is set in Israel in 1997, prior to the recent Palestinian uprisings. The characters, two American archaeologists, a Jordanian epigrapher, a Lebanese museum curator, an Arab-Israeli registrar, and an American conservator, reflect the diverse population and religious beliefs of modern Israel. Since the provenance of the papyri turns out to be a cave located smack on the Jordanian-Israeli border, an international committee is convened to determine the ultimate fate of the Dead Sea Codex.
Sarah Wisseman (a.k.a. Sally Underhill) writes the Lisa Donahue archaeological mysteries. She hadn't a clue that she wanted to be an archaeologist until she traveled to Israel right after her freshman year in college. There she ate felafel, fell in love with Jerusalem, camped illegally on Masada, and spent a month at the excavation of biblical Beersheba. Once hooked by archaeology, she returned for her Junior Year Abroad at Tel Aviv University, an experience that eventually inspired The Dead Sea Codex.
In her day job, Sarah is an archaeological scientist at the Program on Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials (ATAM), Illinois State Archaeological Survey, Prairie Research Institute, at the University of Illinois. Her research project on Egyptian mummies led to the first Lisa Donahue mystery, Bound for Eternity (first published 2005, new paperback edition 2012).
The third Lisa Donahue mystery, The Fall of Augustus, and the fourth, The House of the Sphinx, both came out in late 2009. For more info, go to www.sarahwisseman.com
Sarah has recently added several short works to the Kindle Store. They are: Heaven for Roosters (a short story about theft in the Dominican Republic), Then, Fall Caesar (a short story similar to the novel, The Fall of Augustus, but with a very different ending, and Mummy Dearest (a novella form of the longer Bound for Eternity).
Reviews of Fall of Augustus:
"Wicked! Wisseman just keeps getting better!"
Molly MacRae, author of the novel Wilder Rumors and short stories in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
"Wow! I just finished reading The Fall and my head is still spinning! What a tale! It would make a good movie."
Allan C. Campbell, M.D.
"I've always thought of a museum as a quiet place to while away the time, but that's not the case when Sarah Wisseman shows us what can happen behind the scenes. Her character, Lisa Donahue has a distinctively difficult challenge ahead of her to keep her position at the museum. Some of the display pieces go missing, and newly discovered mummies haven't been procured from Egypt. The Fall of Augustus will definitely keep you guessing who the culprit might be, right down to the last chapter. "
Jo Ellen Conger, Conger Book Reviews
