"True Raiders: The Untold Story of the 1909 Expedition to Find the Legendary Ark of the Covenant"--by Brad Ricca--tells the untold true story of Monty Parker, a British rogue nobleman who, after being dared to do so by Ava Astor, the so-called "most beautiful woman in the world," headed a secret 1909 expedition to find the fabled Ark of the Covenant

 

True Raiders: The Untold Story of the 1909 Expedition to Find the Legendary Ark of the Covenant

True Raiders is The Lost City of Z meets The Da Vinci Code, from critically acclaimed author Brad Ricca.

This book tells the untold true story of Monty Parker, a British rogue nobleman who, after being dared to do so by Ava Astor, the so-called "most beautiful woman in the world," headed a secret 1909 expedition to find the fabled Ark of the Covenant. Like a real-life version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, this incredible story of adventure and mystery has almost been completely forgotten today.

In 1908, Monty is approached by a strange Finnish scholar named Valter Juvelius who claims to have discovered a secret code in the Bible that reveals the location of the Ark. Monty assembles a ragtag group of blueblood adventurers, a renowned psychic, and a Franciscan father, to engage in a secret excavation just outside the city walls of Jerusalem.

Using recently uncovered records from the original expedition and several newly translated sources, True Raiders is the first retelling of this group's adventures- in the space between fact and faith, science and romance.

"True Raiders proves that the best stories are often the true ones. Filled with a compelling cast of characters, Brad Ricca's book unfolds like the best adventure novels. Prodigiously researched, it's a rollicking, riveting ride and a fascinating read."―Buddy Levy, Bestselling Author of Labyrinth of Ice, Conquistador and River of Darkness

"Grounded in historical accuracy, this marvelous story of the true raider of the Ark of the Covenant is fascinating, vivid and suggestive as gold lit by torchlight." ―Eric Zala, Director of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, the shot-for-shot remake of the original film

 

 

ALSO BY BRAD RICCA

 

 

 

Olive the Lionheart: Lost Love, Imperial Spies, and One Woman's Journey to the Heart of Africa

 

From the Edgar-nominated author of the bestselling Mrs. Sherlock Holmes comes the true story of a woman's quest to Africa in the 1900s to find her missing fiancé, and the adventure that ensues.

In 1910, Olive MacLeod, a thirty-year-old, redheaded Scottish aristocrat, received word that her fiancé, the famous naturalist Boyd Alexander, was missing in Africa.

So she went to find him.

Olive the Lionheart is the thrilling true story of her astonishing journey. In jungles, swamps, cities, and deserts, Olive and her two companions, the Talbots, come face-to-face with cobras and crocodiles, wise native chiefs, a murderous leopard cult, a haunted forest, and even two adorable lion cubs that she adopts as her own. Making her way in a pair of ill-fitting boots, Olive awakens to the many forces around her, from shadowy colonial powers to an invisible Islamic warlord who may hold the key to Boyd's disappearance. As these secrets begin to unravel, all of Olive's assumptions prove wrong and she is forced to confront the darkest, most shocking secret of all: why she really came to Africa in the first place.

Drawing on Olive's own letters and secret diaries, Olive the Lionheart is a love story that defies all boundaries, set against the backdrop of a beautiful, unconquerable Africa.

 

"Brad Ricca’s Olive MacLeod is my favorite sort of woman from history―bold and unconventional, utterly unsinkable―and her story is so full of adventure and acts of courage, it’s hard to believe she actually lived. And yet she did! Brad Ricca has found a heroine for the ages, and written her tale with a winning combination of accuracy and imagination." ― Paula McLain, author of Love and Ruin and The Paris Wife 

 

 

Brad Ricca

 

 

 

Brad Ricca is the author of Olive the Lionheart (2020), the Edgar-nominated Mrs. Sherlock Holmes (2017), and Super Boys (2014), winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Nonfiction and a Booklist Top 10 Book on the Arts. He is also the author of American Mastodon, winner of the 2009 St. Lawrence Book Award. He lives with his family in Cleveland.

http://www.brad-ricca.com