Drawing in the Dust by Zoe Klein

Page Brookstone is an American archeologist who has been working in Israel for the past decade. She loves her job excavating a dig in Megiddo but is in a slump in life. She is also in a rather uncomfortable situation with one of her co-workers and his feelings for her, and is stressed about it. So when a Palestenian couple, Ibrahim and Naima, approach her with a ghost story curiousity gets the better of her and she ends up investigating their claims on her day off. To her surprise, she finds a coffin containing two intertwined skeletons and a scroll written by a female scribe named Anatiya. She quickly becomes immersed in her discovery and risks her career when she leaves Megiddo and begins work on her intriguing find.

I found some of the content in this book to be very interesting. I loved the parts dealing with the ghost story and archeology itself - the excavating, the mystery and thrill of the find. But at the same time I wasn't very thrilled with Page as a character. I found her to be annoying and immature for a 40ish year old professional. I also enjoyed learning of the prophet Jeremiah, but how much is fact and/or fiction is unknown to me. Ms. Klein does mention that she wrote the fictional Scroll of Anatiya to coincide with the life of Jeremiah as if Anatiya were a woman who lived along with and loved the prophet. I only mention this because the author quotes directly from the scroll at the start of each chapter.

I can't say I'd recommend this as I didn't love it, but if you are interested in learning about the Prophet Jeremiah or an archeological mystery then you might want to check this one out.