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Sol and Anna Slyde sit down to dinner at their forest home in rural New York and hear a message on the answering machine that will change and threaten their lives. A bizarre manuscript has been missing since 1828, and the mysterious caller from the West is sending Sol a huge retainer to find it.

I can't explain how significant this would be, warns their jealous friend Margie -known to her customers as Joh . . .

Imagine if the Ark of the Covenant could be found, and in it, an older version of the Bible than anyone has seen before. Suppose George Washington's love letters turned up somewhere, and they weren't written to Martha. Hell, let's have a flying saucer land in Washington and actually stay around for photos and an interview. The hundred and sixteen pages are the ultimate quest of any Mormon historian, and we have to presume they were destroyed long ago. But if you can turn them up - and convince us they're real - your $10,000 won't be enough to buy a single page from the pile.

Plunge into an unfamiliar culture at a lake town in western Idaho, then on to Utah and finally East where Joh's expertise uncovers shades of New York Sol never imagined. Their billionaire client opens doors they can't afford to close, but there is always a price.

We often hear, responds bookseller Mabel, that one should avoid the very appearance of evil. Her tone is so dry that Sol can't tell if Mabel likes evil or not.

Perfect for mystery buffs who savor an atmosphere of murder more than the blood - and as much fun for Mormons to read as their friends -or a few of their foes!