Book excerpt: When her seismic exposé of religious abuses lands on the best-seller list, Professor Mira Veron becomes a darling of the literati and a target for religious extremists and culture-warriors alike. With her soon-to-be-ex-husband scheming to undermine her, her opportunistic agent attempting to cash in on her name, and a seductive born-again assassin tracking her every move, she meets up with a publishing tycoon who is guarding a volatile secret. Veron is drawn into an underground network by the promise of cataclysmic religious revelations only to watch as her new associates mysteriously die, one by one. Under siege by forces seen and unseen, she embarks on a desperate quest for answers. Now she must choose between defending her work and defending her life. Fans of Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Dan Brown and Minette Walters will enjoy this suspenseful exploration of religion and politics, atheism and evangelism, secularism and domestic terrorism, in twenty-first century America.