Someone has stolen the jewel-studded crowns worn by the Virgin Mary and her Baby Jesus. But who? And how?  

Those are the questions New Orleans Property Crimes Detective Bo Duplessis must answer -- and quickly. Everyone is breathing down Bo’s back, including the mayor, the archbishop, and the Ursuline nuns from whom the crowns were taken. But the only clue he has to work with is a secret code embedded in a pair of dusty novels authored by women with male nom de plumes. For help in deciphering the baffling encryption, Bo turns to competitive puzzler and amateur cryptologist Sallie Maguire, girlfriend of his childhood buddy, the eccentric antiques dealer Bruneau Abellard.  

As the three friends work to unravel the mystery of the stolen crowns, they must traverse three hundred years of New Orleans history in search of the through line that connects the first Ursulines to arrive at the fledgling city, to a famous Voodoo queen, a wealthy 19th-century widow, the charismatic leader of an obscure 20th-century spiritual community, and her would-be present-day avatar.