Clayton Haley’s journey as a U.S. foreign service officer continues into the disconnected destinies of modern Kuwait and ancient Baghdad in search of a truth—one that is scripted on ancient sacred palimpsests, providing rare scrutiny into the exploitation of one of the world’s largest religions.

Haley’s exhumation efforts of those who died in war lead to the discovery of a map that was stolen in the 1990 Iraqi looting of the Kuwaiti national archives. This map points to the long-forgotten Round City of Baghdad, which is said to contain treasures lost to humanity in the 1258 destruction of the city by Mongols. Haley’s efforts, bolstered by an unruly team of Green Berets and intelligence friends, don’t go without opposition—a spectral Bin Laden empire scion counters his every move in a desire to foment tribal uprisings against nouveau colonialism while carrying out an avowed revenge against Haley for thwarting his Messianic Reveal.

Messianic Reveal intelligently and compassionately, and at times humorously, narrates the story of an unexceptional young man of integrity who seeks simply to serve his country, and in so doing follows his instincts into a labyrinth of conspiracies. The novel launches from and connects to real events and real people: the 1979 siege of Mecca, Osama Bin Laden’s brother, Ayatollah Khomeini’s temporary residences in France and Iraq, and so on.

The most extraordinary and compelling parts of this fictional account are true or otherwise widely believed in the Middle East, and largely come from Ethan T. Burroughs’ personal experiences and relationships with locals there. Throughout Messianic Reveal, readers are taken behind the scenes into the government’s bureaucratic and policy machinations, and the West’s grappling with Islam’s political influence.