Last Testament - Couverture souple

Maggie Costello is a “closer,” an expert brought into negotiations when all other options have failed. Now in Jerusalem, she mediates peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which have broken down after two high-profile deaths. Hawkish Zionist Shimon Guttman was gunned down by bodyguards who believed he was about to assassinate the Israeli prime minister. “This will change everything,” Guttman had cryptically warned the prime minister before he was killed. Palestinian Ahmed Nour, a respected archaeologist, has also been killed on suspicion of being a collaborator. When Maggie discovers that the two men were secret colleagues, she is plunged into a mystery rooted in a last, unsolved riddle of the Bible. It all leads back to an ancient clay tablet looted from Baghdad’s Museum of Antiquities and a secret that could end a war—or spark a new one.
       The Last Testament is a pulse-pounding blockbuster of timeless enigmas and modern technology from Sam Bourne, author of the international bestseller The Righteous Men. Compulsively readable, driven by Bourne’s intimate knowledge of the conflict in the Middle East, The Last Testament evokes the tension of high-stakes politics and the excitement of ancient historical mysteries unravelled.

April 2003: an Iraqi boy loots an ancient clay tablet from a long-forgotten vault in the Baghdad Museum of Antiquities.

Years later, at a rally for the signing of a historic deal between Israel and the Palestinians, a suspected assassin pushes through the crowd toward the Israeli prime minister. Bodyguards shoot the man dead. But in his hand there is no gun—only a blood-stained note.

A series of seemingly random revenge killings follows and tensions boil over. Washington calls in star peace-negotiator Maggie Costello. With her relationship in trouble and old sins to atone for, Maggie finds herself in an impossible situation, especially when she discovers the murders are not random. Someone is killing archaeologists and historians—those who know the buried secrets of the ancient past.

Menaced on all sides by violent extremists, Costello is plunged into a mystery rooted in the last unsolved riddle of the Bible. The truth could end hostilities—or spark the war to end all wars.