Talk about a cold case, try solving a 30,000-year-old murder. The Well-Dressed Neanderthal is a cosmic retelling of the Cain and Abel story, blending Genesis, Norse mythology, quantum mechanics, a kidnapped ex-naval aviator, a pitcher with a 94-mile per hour fastball, country music, a slacker chick, and a mischievous Yorkshire Terrier into a complex stew, spiced with a forbidden attraction between a troubled FBI Agent and a beautiful, blue-eyed blonde with an earth-shattering secret.

Archeology professor Jedediah Coxswain has been missing since discovering a technologically advanced instrument attached to the remains of a Neanderthal man, dubbed “Abel” by the dig team. Archeologists are baffled by the artifact. But Gordon Thrym, a billionaire Wall Street financier knows exactly what it is, and he will stop at nothing to possess the one device he must have to subjugate Earth’s civilizations. Again.

If humanity is to escape the fate of our Neanderthal brothers, the intractable Judit Falleg must succeed in her first mission to find the artifact before Thrym. But to beat a man so powerful, she’ll need help. And when she and FBI Agent Ian Magee unexpectedly cross paths, she thinks he might be the ally she needs. But Ian is an alcoholic, haunted by memories of collateral damage in Iraq. With the help of his partner at the FBI, his bar-owning AA sponsor, and an ethereal little girl, he’s been sober for nearly three years. Barely.

Now, a close friend is missing, the nightmares come more frequently, and his new boss is after his badge for reasons that go well beyond Ian’s besotted past. The solace of the bottle is calling.

This 30,000-year-old murder mystery employs emerging, just over-the-horizon technology that listeners will find both plausible and easy to imagine. It is set in Germany, Texas, and…well…not here.