Esau

In an ice cave high on a forbidden Himalayan mountaintop, renegade climber Jack Furness unearths a perfectly preserved skull, a fossil that may be the missing link and the scientific discovery of the century. To Berkeley paleoanthropologist Stella Swift, the miraculous find warrants an immediate expedition up the mountain's treacherous Fish Tail Peak. But with neighboring Pakistan and India on the brink of nuclear catastrophe, the Pentagon and the GA have their own designs on the remote site. Now, they're all about to enter a domain where one of nature's fiercest creations has thrived for millions of years -- and modern man was never meant to be.

Philip Kerr has been hailed by the Financial Times as "England's answer to Michael Crichton," and was placed on the literary magazine Granta's list of "Best Young British Novelists." ESAU is Kerr's seventh novel. He lives in London.