Murder at the Museum of Natural History — Michael Jahn

THE ROAD TO RUIN

Lieutenant Bill Donovan's passion for antiquities lures him to the gala opening of an exhibition of priceless artifacts excavated along the ancient Silk Road--the legendary trade route that stretched from Cathay to the West.

Tragically, murder crashes the party when archaeologist Paolo Lucca is found brutally stabbed with a 1000-year-old dagger once owned by Kublai Khan. While suspicion falls on the victim's gorgeous supermodel wife who just inherited a king's ransom, Donovan can't ignore an international list of enemies that includes Mideast fundamentalists and Russian mobsters.

A trail of blackmail, bribery and corruption as rough and perilous as the Silk Road itself leads Donovan to an old but universal truth: the path to riches might be the one that gets you dead.