Thirty Feet Under
A Mystery
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Mar 3, 2026
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- $10.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
For readers of Dan Brown comes a thrilling tale of lost kings, mad emperors, international smugglers, and an FBI Art Crimes Team that will stop at nothing to track down the missing treasures of an ancient empire.
When a museum in Italy is robbed and the guard murdered, the Carabinieri Art Squad ask for Kate Taylor’s help searching for the thieves. After working in the FBI Art Crimes Team for years, doing little but updating files and computer work, she is thrilled to work on a real case.
Yet there’s something unusual about their request. It’s a small, unremarkable marble sphinx that was stolen — why would the Carabinieri care? Still, she’s looking forward to some excitement and adventure. Besides, Luca, the Carabinieri’s agent, has big, beautiful eyes.
Kate finds out the sphinx is the key to unraveling one of the greatest mysteries in archeology: the lost tomb of a legendary king. Before long, she’s searching for suspects in an international smuggling ring. People are dying. She doesn’t know who she can trust, including Luca. And time is running out: Kate has two weeks to solve a 3,000-year-old mystery before its treasures are looted and vanish forever.
Back in New York, Paul Klugman is about to give up his dream of becoming a dealer of ancient art. Then he gets a call from an eccentric art collector that will change his life forever. He soon finds the success and wealth he’s always wanted, but the price is higher than he ever expected. And the truth is buried deeper than the artifacts.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wodhams's fleet and fun sophomore novel (after Declan Tucker's Grand Debut) follows a 32-year-old FBI intern and a down-on-his-luck antiques dealer as they collide with a dangerous smuggling ring. Bored by a string of ho-hum assignments, art crimes intern Kate Taylor perks up when Lucas Rosi, a handsome agent with Italy's Carabinieri Art Squad, calls and asks for the FBI's help tracking down an ancient marble sphinx that was stolen from an Italian museum. Kate leaps at the assignment, and dreams up a sting using valuable gold earrings once owned by Alexander the Great's mother as bait. Meanwhile, in New York City, morally flexible antiques dealer Paul Klugman is trying to keep his business afloat to avoid working in his father's chain of dollar stores. Self-centered and not prone to asking too many questions, Paul embraces a shady saving grace from wealthy art collector Harry, who offers him the sale of a rare vase. Eventually, Kate's sting intersects with Paul's business plan, entangling both in a vast conspiracy that threatens their lives. Though Wodhams's flawed, sometimes bumbling leads can be frustrating company,, his plotting and prose are breezy and amusing. This screen-ready adventure offers a welcome dose of escapism.
