Jungle of Steel and Stone, the second in the "Veil" series, was based on a true story, an incident reported in The New York Times about a tribe in the Kalahari desert that was disintegrating, physically and morally, as a result of its idol/god being stolen. Religious belief has always fascinated me, and the style in which the Veil books are written gave me a chance to explore one particular belief system "from the inside out," in a matter of speaking---from the point of view of one particularly courageous individual whose faith in a block of wood is the key to his survival.

The Nal-toon---the carved wooden god-totem of the K'ung tribe of Africa's Kalahari Desert---is stolen from the midtown art gallery that exhibits Veil Kendry's dream-paintings. It isn't hard to identify the thief: Tobal'ak, a K'ung warrior-prince flown in to publicize the original theft of the idol from the tribe, had snatched the statue and pinned a security guard to the wall with a tribal spear before rushing into the relative safety of Central Park.

It wouldn't seem difficult to run down an African tribesman in Manhattan. But the prince is a superior warrior, able to conceal himself even in the wastes of the Kalahari.

The police aren't the only ones looking for Tobal'ak. There's the lovely missionary, Reyna Alexander, who enlists Veil's aid. And for reasons unknown to them, the Nal-toon is of obsessive interest to the Cosa Nostra---and to Carl Nagle, the most corrupt cop in New York.

Veil must use his paranormal dream-powers to enter the mind of the warrior-prince, locate him, and ensure his---and the Nal-toon's---return to the Kalahari. But time is short; Nagle and his squad of vigilantes are quite willing to kill Veil, Reyna, and Tobal'ak in their quest for the idol.

• "...If you ran every time you saw a crazy man in New York, you'd die of exhaustion before noon." -Veil Kendry