'A rollicking good read.' Ian Rankin

Istanbul, 1938.

A city of spies, bridging East and West, on the eve of a world war.

Cambridge historian Ernest Drabble and his wife, Charlotte, arrive in the city for their honeymoon — bringing along Drabble’s old friend and best man, journalist Percival Harris. The pair have been inseparable since their school days and time at Oxford, and, despite their disagreements, are more like brothers.

Following an unsettling encounter at the Hagia Sophia there’s a suspicious break-in at Harris’s hotel room. Then Charlotte suddenly vanishes. Harris, meanwhile, has fallen for the charms of Yasmin Yildiz - a woman who turns out to be closely connected to a high-profile Turkish nationalist politician.

Before they know it, Drabble, Harris and Charlotte are plunged into a dangerous conspiracy, one that could change the course of Turkish history and threaten to destabilise the global order at a critical moment in world affairs.

At the heart of the intrigue is a Nazi-backed bid to uncover a sacred artefact, one that has laid hidden in the remote mountains of Eastern Turkey for more than 10,000 years – Noah’s Ark.

The game's afoot.

But who can be trusted and who is telling the truth? Only by ascending the treacherous snowy heights of Mount Ararat will Drabble, Harrisand Charlotte be reunited andfind the answers they are looking for.

Alec Marsh is a journalist and author of the Drabble & Harris books. He lives with his family in Essex.

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