Da Vinci Mole (Dr. Ian Browne - not his real name) - BenBella Books - 2006 - 127 pages.

I don't know.  I've got to stop reading these Da Vinci Code parodies.

This one starts the same way - curator dead; lots of cryptic clues; billionaire Stanford modern art expert (Hank) and beautiful young French woman (Saphie) start solving clues and rush from Cincinnati to Cairo, Egypt.  But then, things get strange.  It seems that Karl Rove is an evil alien and Saphie has family friends in Egypt named Villain and Traitor. 

Author Browne refuses to reveal his real name and for good reason.  Mainly, he does not want the Church of Scientology to know where he lives.  There are many puzzles here (other than why did I read the whole book?) and some of them remain unsolved -- Benbella Books offers $500 to anyone who can guess where the WMD ("Weapon of Mental Development") was found.  I for one have no clue.

I usually do not reveal the endings of books I read but I will make an exception in this case -- that mole is not on her face! [JAM 7/25/2009]