AARON ELKINS is the author of the Edgar Award-winning Gideon Oliver mysteries He lives with his wife Charlotte on Washington s Olympic Peninsula.

Travel in Germay Sicily Spain and Holland-with all expenses paid-sounds more like a dream vacation than a visiting felowship to Gideon Oliver That is until some black-clad and desperate men try to kil him And it just so happens that two other visiting scholars have met with mysterious ends.

A world-renowned anthropologist Oliver claims he can identify h is assailants by their speech patterns But John Lau the Army Intelligence officer assigned to the case doesn t belive a word of it Nor does he believe that the charred fragments of bones and teeth from a corpse can reveal its identity and smoking habits Now caught in a web of intrigue that stretches across Europe Oliver must rely on his forensic talents to help him solve a deadly conundrum-not to mention save his own life.