Unholy Business
A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy Land
(Harper, Sept 2008)
Israel, with 30,000 archeological digs
crammed with Bible- era artifacts, and fever-pitch religious extremists vying
for proof of faith and history, is the setting for this gripping story from the
eccentric world of Biblical archaeology and high-end relic collection.
Surrounded by a cast of colorful characters—scholars, evangelicals, detectives,
billionaires and dealers—a pair of scholar-cops stalk a wily millionaire who
conducted what Israeli police called “the fraud of the century.†Two objects at
the center of the fraud—the James Ossuary and the Joash Tablet—were only the tip
of the iceberg. Museum shelves worldwide may still display fakes from his
workshop. Unholy Business takes readers into the murky world of Holy Land relic
dealing from the back alleys of Jerusalem’s Old City to New York’s Fifth Avenue,
and reveals Biblical archaeology as it is pulled apart by religious believers on
one side and scientists on the other.
Nina Burleigh is the author of four critically acclaimed nonfiction books. Her
latest, Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy
Land (Collins 2008), tells the story of the unraveling of a Bible relic forgery
scheme in Israel, and the intriguing world of biblical archaeology and relic
collectors.
Previous books include Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt
(Harper Collins, 2007), chronicles the first large-scale interaction between
Western civilians and Islam in the modern era; The Stranger and the Statesman,
(Morrow, 2003) about the mysterious life of 18th Century scientist James
Smithson and his bequest to the nation; and A Very Private Woman: The Life and
Unsolved Murder of Mary Meyer, (Bantam 1998), the true story of the unsolved
murder of an American aristocrat in 1964, set in the bizarre and exclusive world
of the wives of the Cold Warriors in Washington, D.C.Burleigh was born and
educated in the Midwest, and began in journalism covering the Illinois
Statehouse for the Associated Press. She has a Master's degree in English
Literature from the University of Chicago, a Master's in Public Affairs
Reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield, and a B.A. in English
from MacMurray College.
To learn more please visit
http://www.literati.net/Burleigh/BurleighBooks.htm
