Tomorrow he planned to stow away in the cargo bin of the bus to Addis Ababa, where he would find prosperous construction work and a beautiful girlfriend.īefore leaving home, however, he craved an even more exciting escape, one that promised a glimpse of Paradise. Everyone said he should be grateful for the honor, but he had no desire to waste away his life mumbling incantations. As a result, he was forbidden to play football or chase tourists for candy, and he would have to slave six more years carrying sandals just to become a deacon. His father, the High Priest of Lalibela, had marked him at birth for religious service by tattooing a blue cross on his right temple. That was the only godsend from his miserable duties.

He knew every bend and cranny in this secret passage by memory, having accompanied the priests on their daily inspections of the subterranean churches. At last, he came to the Armory of the Shining Ones, the long notch in the floor where the angels had once stored their lances. His dizziness eased, and he resumed his quest, groping blindly on all fours along the narrowing walls. He chewed the morsel slowly, taking care to muzzle its aroma with his tunic’s sleeve to avoid being swarmed by the bees that hived in the crevices. Faint from hunger, he stopped and pulled a crust of bread from his pocket. The settling night had cooled the mountain village above him, but here, sixty meters below the surface, the trapped midday heat could roast a chicken. To preserve the precious air, he slowed his breaths as he crawled. The tunnel’s gritty sandstone, stained red from the blood of Satan’s serpents, punished his hands and knees.

Georgis the Dragonslayer for protection as he wormed his way toward the tomb of the first man on Earth. Sopped in sweat, the ten-year-old Ethiopian boy prayed to St. Separated by half a millennium, two global conspiracies dovetail in this historical mystery-thriller to expose the world’s most explosive secret: the real identity and mission of Christopher Columbus. To her horror, she soon discovers the palindrome has been embedded with a cryptographic time bomb. While investigating the murder of an American missionary in Ethiopia, rookie State Department lawyer Jaqueline Quartermane stumbles upon the infamous Templar Word Square, an ancient Latin puzzle that has eluded scholars for centuries. Today I am delighted to bring you an excerpt from Glen Craney’s fast-paced dual-time mystery thriller, The Virgin of the Wind Rose.

The Fire and the Light by Glen Craney