In Israel, a man clutching a backpack searches desperately for a boat. In Minnesota, Virgil Flowers gets a message from Lucas Davenport: You're about to get a visitor. It's an Israeli cop, and she is tailing a man who has smuggled out an extraordinary relic, a copper scroll revealing startling details about the man known as King Solomon. Wait a minute, laughs Virgil. Is this one of those Da Vinci Code deals? The secret scroll, the blockbuster revelation,...

Virgil Flowers was brought into the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension by a promise from Lucas Davenport: "We'll only give you the hard stuff." He's been doing the hard stuff for three years, but he's never seen anything like this. In the small rural town of Bluestem, an old man is bound in his basement, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. This is the third murder in just as many weeks, and it's becoming clear that Flowers has stepped into a killer's...

Presents a fully-illustrated catalog of plants, with identification, preservation, and flower arrangement information and tips for selecting, buying, and preparing floral designs.