Outside Eden

by Merry Jones

Overview

July, Israel. Iraqi war vet and archaeology graduate Harper Jennings doesn’t believe in the evil eye. So when Hagit – the woman assigned to show her and Chloe, Harper’s fourteen-month-old baby, around Tel Aviv – drags the pair of them into a market to buy charms to ward off evil, it isn’t the bad luck she fears but the market itself. Close, dark and crowded, the place worries Harper, and when an American man seems to be in trouble, it is only the presence of baby Chloe that stops her from wading in to help.
Later, to Harper’s dismay, she learns that the man she saw was murdered. So when she’s invited to take part in an dig fifty miles away, while her geologist husband Hank takes part in the international symposium that has brought them both to Israel, she accepts. It will be safer away from the market, she thinks. But Hagit, who’s coming along to look after Chloe, disagrees. She is convinced the evil eye is to blame, and that it will follow Harper wherever she goes . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727882646
Publisher:	Severn House Publishers
Publication date:	07/01/2013
Series:	A Harper Jennings Mystery , #4
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Merry Jones has been writing since she was old enough to hold a pencil, but it was not until the birth of her second child that she decided to pursue her passion and write books. She is a member of The Mystery Writers of America, The Authors’ Guild and The Philadelphia Liars Club. She lives with her husband in the Philadelphia suburbs, teaching writing part-time at Temple University.

Editorial Reviews

Jones’s appealing fourth Harper Jennings mystery (after 2012’s Winter Break) opens in a teeming Jerusalem market place where a determined killer is stalking his prey, a benighted American tourist. Meanwhile, Harper, a feisty archeologist and traumatized Iraq war veteran, thinks she, husband Hank, and baby daughter will have a relaxing stay as they attend an international symposium in Jerusalem. When Harper and her Israeli nanny find the body of a Muslim in a Christian area, they inadvertently discover that both the Muslim and the earlier American victim were murdered in exactly the same manner. Hoping to escape the tension of being part of a police investigation, Harper, her baby, and the surprisingly assertive nanny leave Jerusalem with Hank’s blessing and join an archeological dig at Tel Megiddo. Unsettling events near the site raise the ante, but the story spins out of control as it approaches the frenzied and chaotic conclusion. Agent: Rebecca Strauss, McIntosh & Otis. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Fans of the Jennings series will enjoy seeing Hannah in her new, more mature role as a mother, and, as always, the story is sharply told."

Booklist

"Fans of the Jennings series will enjoy seeing Hannah in her new, more mature role as a mother, and, as always, the story is sharply told."

Booklist

“Jones’s appealing fourth Harper Jennings mystery”
Publishers Weekly on Outside Eden

“Jones’ fourth Jennings saga maintains a nice balance among mystery, travel writing and domestic drama.”
Kirkus Reviews on Outside Eden

" Fans of the Jennings series will enjoy seeing Hannah in her new, more mature role as a mother, and, as always, the story is sharply told."
Booklist on Outside Eden

From the Publisher

2013-08-15
An archaeologist runs afoul of a millennialist cult on a dig in northern Israel. Iraq War veteran Harper Jennings (Winter Break, 2013, etc.) has plenty on her mind. In Jerusalem while her geologist husband, Hank, attends an international symposium on water rights, Harper spends her days trying to entertain her toddler, Chloe. But the desert landscape brings flashbacks of wartime trauma. These only increase when Harper witnesses the stabbing of a man in the shuk of the Old City. Hoping that a change of scene will help, she volunteers for a dig outside of Tel Megiddo. But Harper is shaken, first by Chloe's quick abandonment of her English vocabulary in favor of Hebrew and later, by the constant and nerve-racking vigilance of Hagit, Chloe's nanny, against plots hatched by the Evil Eye. It doesn't help that all the other volunteers on the dig are members of a Christian sect led by charismatic pastor Ramsey Travis. Nor does it set Harper's mind at ease when her digging partner, Lynne, confides that Travis has the extraordinary power to decode secret messages in the Bible and that he's discovered that Tel Megiddo is actually a corruption of the word Armageddon, which will take place at that site on the ninth day of the Hebrew month Av, only five days away. As Travis' flock prepares for the End of Days, Harper tries to alert the Israeli authorities, but they ignore her concerns. So she does what any red-blooded female Iraq War veteran would do, launching an assault against the Evil Eye far beyond anything Hagit can imagine. Right up to the point that Harper turns GI Jane, Jones' fourth Jennings saga maintains a nice balance among mystery, travel writing and domestic drama.

Kirkus Reviews