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Map Thief
by Heather Terrell
Art sleuth Mara Coyne goes in search of a rare Chinese map in Terrell’s follow-up to The Chrysalis (2006). At the behest of power broker Richard Tobias, Coyne travels to Europe and the Far East in pursuit of the map, which dates from a fifteenth-century expedition led by Admiral Zheng He. The document, which was stolen from an archaeological dig, is precious, indeed; it is reportedly the first map in history to represent the entire world. Mysterious circumstances seem to have landed the map in Portugal, where Vasco da Gama used it to find a sea route to India. Lots of bad guys want to prevent Mara and her cohort, archaeologist Ben Coleman, from recovering the map. The unlikely pair (chic, well-dressed Mara and scruffy academic Ben) always seem a step ahead of the villains, but it’s only a matter of time before their luck runs out.