"The wolf hunts the butterfly." After American writer Cooper Renner hears these baffling words on a crowded street in Malta, his peaceful visit to the Mediterranean island becomes increasingly strange. Why does he begin to imagine he is seeing wolves everywhere? Hallucination or something more disturbing? Why does a group of elderly men, once involved in Malta's long-ago struggle for independence, suddenly take an interest in his whereabouts? When the U.S. embassy orders him into protective custody, the measure seems extreme -- until Renner learns that ancient Malta hides a mystical secret world he could never have imagined. "A Death by the Sea" is the fascinating new novel by the author of "Dr Jesus and Mr Dead." Excerpts have already appeared in the magazines "New York Tyrant," "Keyhole," "The Anemone Sidecar" and "Unscroll." Its companion novel is "A Spurious Death in a Foreign Country."