A woman jumps from the bridge connecting Fort Myers and Sanibel, Florida. Stunned onlookers watch her plummet seemingly halfway to the rough Gulf waters below in a second. Then, remarkably, her body appears to snap back. A bright, yellow and orange explosion of fabric erupts into a parachute behind her. She glides out onto a passing Chinese ship below and hitches a ride out into the distance. Anjali, a woman fascinated with bridges and suicides, happens to be on vacation just a few miles away. She is immediately intrigued by this strange BASE jumper. With Sanibel’s rumored connection to old spooks from around the globe, everyone suspects that the jump was a part of some covert operation, including Anjali. So she decides to pretend to be a journalist again and look into this matter. Her investigation brings Anjali, and her best male friend, Thad, face to face with a jewel theft, a drug smuggler, and a former state department employee with a secret. Eventually, Anjali and Thad are forced to confront the very real possibility that the villain in all of this international intrigue may be right under their nose in the very seaside mansion they are guests in. Narrated with Anjali’s patented wry humor and beginner’s mind style, A Persian Gem, is a worthy comic novel, a baffling mystery, and a daring spy caper all in one spellbinding tome.