During the Second World War, Captain Miles Roselli hides three dead comrades and a fortune in Vatican gold in the Tibesti Mountains of the northern Sahara. Twenty years later, he is forced into a battle of wits when the secret of the gold bullion is revealed. Roselli was the only man alive who knew anything about the gold's whereabouts and never expected the truth to come to light. The slaughter of a gold bullion dealer in London opens up a race for the gold, which involves the Italian mafia and the Vatican. But for the Holy See of Rome, the gold is of little interest to them, it is the document that had been stolen from the Secret Archives and concealed with the gold; its revelation could do lasting damage to the Roman Catholic Church. Roselli has to call on all his old instincts and the guile of a Desert Rat to protect his name, his family and the truth that lies buried beneath the Tibesti Mountains.

マイケル・パーカーが描く本作の真髄は、サハラ砂漠に埋もれた「過去の亡霊」との対峙にあります。単なる黄金争奪戦を超え、大戦の傷跡とバチカンの秘匿事項が交錯するプロットは、信仰と欲望という根源的なテーマを浮き彫りにします。静寂なる砂丘が秘める歴史の重みと、そこに引きずり出される者の葛藤が、読者の魂を激しく揺さぶります。 主人公ロゼッリの魅力は、老練な「砂漠の鼠」としての本能と、家族を守る高潔な精神の融合にあります。マフィアや教会の思惑が渦巻く中、知略を尽くして極限を切り抜ける彼の姿は、人間の尊厳を懸けた戦いそのものです。文字から立ち上がる熱気と緊張感は、読者を灼熱の地へと誘い、一気呵成に読み進めさせる力強さに満ちています。