by Jack Du Brul
First published 2006
Mining engineer Philip Mercer faces a puzzle that spans seven decades. In a remote African village, cancer rates have spiked to alarming levels. The locals are dying, and no one knows why. Mercer partners with field researcher Cali Stone to uncover the truth behind this medical mystery. Their investigation leads them back to 1937 and the Hindenburg disaster. A killer aboard the doomed airship threw a safe overboard before the explosion. That safe held a secret dangerous enough to murder for. Now, seventy years later, that same secret may be poisoning an entire community. Mercer and Stone must connect the dots between a Nazi airship and a dying African village. They race against time as more people fall ill. The answer lies buried in the past, but the consequences are killing people in the present.
Genres: historical-fiction, adventure, mystery, thriller, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, race-against-time, secret-past
Setting: Africa, Germany
Period: 1937, 2000s
368 pages · Hardcover · Dutton Adult