Haida archaeologist Jake Lalonde dreams the same dreams as his ancestors, and his profession has taken him to strange and fascinating places before. When the corpse of a colleague and friend, Vincent Carpello, appears in the back of a freight truck, however--his stiff hands miming the form of a raven rattle--Jake"s thirst for adventure sets him on a dangerous journey that may just be his last. At the University of Washington, a team of researchers that include Jake"s fiancée, Angeline Lisbon, know that Jake"s now deceased colleague, Vincent Carpello, was on the cusp of a major discovery that had the potential to turn the world upside down. But when a Venus statue is stolen, Jake goes missing, and a cypher disappears, Angeline sets out to find Jake--Interpol"s number one suspect. Tracked by a dubious Interpol agent, Angeline follows the clues that soon lead her to a raven-worshipping goddess cult in the subterranean Mithraic temples of Rome. In this supernatural archaeological thriller, the shadow of a shaman must help Jake find his way back to the only world he knows so he can save both himself and Angeline--before it is too late.