Could two cor­rupt 19th cen­tu­ry British archae­ol­o­gists have for­ev­er buried our very notion of Bib­li­cal valid­i­ty?

The Cor­ner­stone of Decep­tion, author Cheryl Simani’s his­tor­i­cal mys­tery nov­el, paints a lurid, absorb­ing por­trait of sta­tus and scan­dal, as ancient truths are van­quished in the quest for fame and for­tune. Rife with intrigue, duplic­i­ty, and romance, this spell­bind­ing nov­el of schol­ar­ly forgery is cer­tain to enthrall any­one inter­est­ed in issues of Bib­li­cal inerran­cy, the debate between sci­ence and reli­gion, or who sim­ply enjoy crack­ing a con­found­ing case.

As sharp as a poi­soned pen, The Cor­ner­stone of Decep­tion por­trays the mete­oric rise of Sir Hen­ry C. Rawl­in­son and his faith­ful assis­tant, George Smith, amid the furor of dis­cov­ery in the Tigris-Euphrates region in the years from 1849 to1876. Their find­ings, which have nev­er been sub­ject­ed to objec­tive, lab­o­ra­to­ry scruti­ny, ren­dered defunct the accept­ed under­stand­ing of the Bib­li­cal time-line.

Based on the real-life tra­jec­to­ry of the Vic­to­ri­an Era archae­ol­o­gists, it is an evoca­tive work con­trast­ing the social extremes of the 19th-cen­tu­ry world. Rig­or­ous­ly researched and rich in peri­od detail, this evoca­tive, intri­cate his­tor­i­cal thriller is cer­tain to pro­voke thought and foment debate.