"1961 New Guinea: While collecting Asmat artifacts for a New York museum, American anthropologist Nick Mayfield stumbles upon a smuggling ring organized by high-ranking members of the Dutch colonial government and the Catholic Church. Before he can alert the authorities, he vanishes in a mangrove swamp, never to be seen again. 2018 Amsterdam: While preparing for an exhibition of Asmat artifacts in a Dutch ethnographic museum, researcher Zelda Richardson...

"Petra Grady has known since adolescence that she has no talent for magic--and that's never going to change. But as a sweeper first-class, she's parlayed her rare ability to handle dross--the damaging, magical waste generated by her more talented kin's spellwork--into a decent life working at the mages' university. Except Grady's relatively predictable life is about to be upended. When the oblivious, sexy, and oh-so-out-of-reach Benedict Strom needs...

"St Mary's is under investigation. Their director has been shot and Max is Number One Suspect. Can things get any worse? We all know the answer to that one. Max needs to get away -- fast -- and a Brilliant Idea soon leads her to a full-scale uprising in twentieth-century China. If she can come by a historical treasure or two in the process, even better. That is, if she makes it out alive. Then there's the small matter of Insight -- the sinister organisation...