The Greatest Prize

1840, Cairo. Young tour guide Ned receives an invitation to act as private secretary to the mysterious historian Abraham Hoakes-Macauley on an overland trek to Jerusalem.

The truth? This is a quest to find the True Cross: rediscovered in the fourth century, stolen by invaders, lost in the Crusades and rumoured throughout history. Ned and the colourful band of travellers must traverse the Holy Land via Sinai, Petra, the Dead Sea and Damascus in search of the greatest prize in Christendom.

Meanwhile, unscrupulous American adventurer Lincoln Glory is in close pursuit and will do anything to obtain the Cross. The two groups chase through desert and mountain, souk and temple, bathhouse and tomb - amid doubt and faith, love and betrayal.

Does the True Cross exist? And what might finding it mean?