Jerusalem 3000, THE POISONER'S AGENDA

Olivia Rodan Jacob's fast-paced thriller features international intrigue, terrorist schemes, and computer hacking. The 294-page novel highlights the centrality of Jerusalem to Jewish life for three millennia, yet it also explores the Arab claim that the city is the third most holy site in Islam.

Wrapped around the personal lives, ambivalences, and motivations of both Jewish and Arab protagonists, the plot interweaves snippets of history-- background to the issues bedeviling the Israeli Palestinian impasse.

When American Kate Gottlieb arrives in Jerusalem, she calls Shin Bet agent Ari Yannai and hands him a note from a murdered Mossad agent. Yet she claims she's a simple tourist. When her next move is to make contact with suspected Palestinian terrorist Ayub Farid, Ari enlists the help of another American--a reluctant professor--in a race to unlock the note’s mysterious code.

While the Palestinian's background infuses the fast-moving plot with an added human dimension, the professor brings an honest ambivalence to the action. How is a computer sleuth in the Mossad involved? What is the poisoner's agenda, and can he be stopped in time?

REVIEW EXCERPTS:

THE POISONER'S AGENDA is based on terrorism, computer espionage, states acquiring illegal weapons, and other contemporary realities. The exciting plot, the well-researched detail, the local ambience, and the clear page-turning writing all recall the style of Frederick Forsyth. -Gliftinking

Jerusalem has been the site of constant conflict over the centuries. Jerusalem 3000 THE POISONER'S AGENDA is a mystery thriller... a riveting novel that will prove hard to put down. -Midwest Book Review, Midwest Book Review.com

...an exciting tale of murder and espionage... The backstory made me appreciate the novel on a level I had notanticipated. -Vonnie Faroqui, Inkslinger's Whimsey

I was happy to find it filled with historical data about the Middle East and the conflicts between Jews and Arabs across the ages... It was an enjoyable story that provides just enough mystery and intrique to keep the reader hooked. Well done. -Readers Favorites, Readers Favorites Book Reviews

SCATTERED SAMPLE TEXTS:

Ayub Farid traced the silver scrolls on the frame with a lean brown finger, carefully rubbing a smudged spot on one corner. He looked long and hard at the figure in the old photograph, a woman in traditional dress. The red, orange and gold threads embroidered on the bodice of her long flowing gown-- flowers and geometric swirls woven in intricate patterns on heavy black cotton-- revealed the village of her birth to those who knew such things. But the man was not looking at the dress. He focused on the woman's eyes, sad dark eyes, seeming to stare right at him...

Sunrise spilled pink ribbons across the ripples on the Sea of Galilee. Peter sat on a cold stone step, gazing across the water, elbows on knees, chin cradled in his hands. Quiet anticipation soothed a restless urge to hurry. But later, when he knocked on Kate's door...

Because of this association of the term Palestinian with the Jews, in 1937 a noted Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, scornfully told the (British) Peel Commission that there was no such country as Palestine. He protested that Palestine was a term the Zionists had invented... In 1946, Philip Hitti, an Arab and distinguished Princeton historian, reiterated this declaration when he testified to the American Committee of Inquiry that there was no such thing as Palestine in history.