Join us for an evening discussing cross cultural living and literary imagination with Adam Williams, a compelling British historical novelist. Williams' decades of experience in international trade and diplomacy give him an astute understanding of what forces may pull apart the mechanical realities of power, religious tension, and political ambition. The primary hook of the two books discussed, the Nile river "turning to blood" and killing wildlife, is brilliantly treated as a scientific mystery colliding with theology and court intrigue. (Event includes drinks and light food. Participants may arrive at 6:30 pm)

A Jewish professor, discovers a mutilated body on the bank of the River Nile and decides to play detective — little knowing that the secret he has stumbled upon could shake the empire. Assassins are on the prowl, a mother and child are being hunted, yet the authorities block Samuel's efforts to find the truth at every step. Meanwhile the general political calm of the kingdom is being torn apart by rumors of a huge foreign army of crusaders about to descend on Jerusalem. The peace of the kingdom is about to erupt into war. Can Samuel find the mother and child in time?