When successful megachurch pastor Daniel Lawson's wife, Jill, is murdered in the Istanbul Spice Bazaar while on a church tour, he is left holding a mysterious stone dating from Old Testament times, which represents one of the 12 tribes of Israel. When all 12 stones are brought together with two others, they are believed to enable the voice of God to be heard. Lawson takes a leave of absence from his church, then teams up with his alienated teenage son, Tyler; clumsy archeologist Dr. Helen Zimmerman; and Nayra Fazil, a Muslim university student, to find the remaining stones. The suspense builds as Ibrahim el-Magd, an Islamic terrorist, also attempts to gather the stones so he might determine the will of Allah before unleashing a horrific act of global mayhem. The abundance of violence may shock readers, but Myers uses it to show the potential dangers of religious fundamentalism. Lawson's grief over his wife's death seems a bit short-lived and, as with many suspense novels, some events require a generous suspension of disbelief. However, Myer's fleshes out the multifaceted character of Ibrahim el-Magd in a way that sheds light on his motivations; the story is replete with action; and the book admirably avoids an implausibly neat ending.