85,000 words
Unedited manuscript available
Canada: Penguin, Apr 2011
Germany: Leubbe
Italy: Rizzoli
Serbia: Alnari
Bulgaria: Chetmo
Russia: AST Publishers
Turkey: Dogan Kitapcilik
Slovakia: SLOVART
World English audio: Recorded Books
(Photo: Robert Rafton)
D.J. (Dorothy) McIntosh is the former co-editor of the Crime Writers of Canada’s newsletter, Fingerprints, and is a Toronto-based writer of novels and short mystery fiction. Her short story “The Hounds of Winter,” published in Blood on the Holly by Baskerville Books (Toronto, 2007), was nominated for the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story. “A View to Die For” appeared in Bloody Words: The Anthology also published by Baskerville Books (Toronto, 2003). McIntosh graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of Toronto.
by D.J. McIntosh
AN ANTIQUITIES THRILLER THAT IS THE FIRST BOOK IN THE MESOPOTAMIAN TRILOGY
- Read Penguin's press release
- Winner of the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Unpublished Crime Novel
- Shortlisted for the 2007 Crime Writers’ Association (U.K.) Debut Dagger Award
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 Istar. 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.
John Madison is a Turkish-American raised by his much older brother Samuel, a mover and shaker in the New York art scene who helped John get started in the business. Samuel was in Baghdad when the war started and managed to “liberate” an important engraving from the National Museum during the looting. Back in New York, he is killed in a car accident and his brother John, the driver of the car, is hospitalized. After John gets out of the hospital, he learns that a former childhood playmate has stolen the engraving and hidden it while trying to sell it to the highest bidder. After the thief is killed by potential buyers, his lawyers send John a letter and USB drive with elaborate puzzles on it that provide clues to the location of the engraving. Now John is in a race against time to find the engraving with the killers close on his heels. His quest takes him, against his will, back to Baghdad and an underground treasure trove unknown to the world.
The Mesopotamian Trilogy: No other antiquities thrillers feature Mesopotamian mythology. Book Two of The Mesopotamian Trilogy focuses on the Neo-Babylonian Empire and Book Three focuses on the Sumerians and the origin of angels. With John Madison as the protagonist, these novels marry ancient Mesopotamian history with different aspects of Hermeticism and the occult in a contemporary setting.