When Toronto antique store owner Lara McClintoch is asked by an old friend, Chinese art historian Dory Matthews, to go to New York to bid on a rare eighth-century Tang Dynasty Chinese silver box, Lara has no idea what it will eventually involve. Dory also owns a similar box and is sure that hers and the one up for auction are part of a set. The legend Dory relates to Lara says that an alchemical formula for the elixir of immortality is etched on the inside of the lid. Pretty heady stuff!

Several other people are just as interested in the silver box up for auction as Lara. When it's withdrawn from the New York sale just moments before the bidding is to start, everyone is left wondering what the anonymous owner is up to, especially when it's then featured for sale in a Beijing auction later.

After Dory's unexpected death, Lara is told that her friend stipulated in her will that Lara continue to pursue purchasing the box. So it's off to Beijing, where the rare box is stolen right in front of Lara and the other buyers. The race is on to locate the box and, of course, a trail of dead bodies is left in the wake. And who can Lara trust, when no one is really who they seem?

In this 11th outing for the globe-trotting Lara McClintoch, fans of this cozy mystery series will enjoy the China setting, as well as the history provided in flashbacks at the start of each chapter. An enjoyable, educational and suspenseful road trip.

Book Summary

Antiques dealer Lara McClintoch is targeted by ruthless criminals while tying to recover an eighth-century Tang Dynasty silver box - with an alchemical formula for the elixir of immortality etched on the inside of the lid. The rare item holds the key not only to the mysterious death of a museum curator, but to Lara's own survival.