Place of Sacrifice

Archaeologist Tanny Greenough-Lewis, desperately seeking early tenure to earn a year off for parenting her twins, follows a decades-old trail. One she hopes will lead to a pair of missing Etruscan cult statues, last seen being stolen by Nazi raiders for the Reich's collection of magical objects.

A long-lost letter from the daughter of the GI who liberated those statues is the first clue in a long and winding case that leads her and Jim to a series of dead ends and deep intrigue. Her success in finding them at last, followed by her deciphering at the sight of the inscription found with them, rockets her to new heights of fame and offers of research money.

Her beloved Jim, meanwhile, faced with the rapid and permanent closure of La Castellina and a lack of personnel, tackles the three remaining mysteries of the site alone: the skulls of the weird Tomb of Sychaeus, the Tofet cave filled with child sacrifices, and the looming Place of Sacrifice itself.

Too late, Tanny realizes what toll his hasty delving will take: nothing more nor less than the life of her best beloved. For her, there comes a grim reckoning, her own Place of Sacrifice.