Hammurabi's Dagger

A fast-moving, time-travelling adventure with an historical bent that takes place over a three-week period, and is based on the premise that extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people.

One Saturday afternoon in September 1955 a young Italian attorney, Sal Dematteo, while visiting the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, views an elaborate dagger and begins having visions of ancient Rome and Judea. As these episodes increase, interrupting his life, he consults his Jewish law partner, David Gold, and the two embark on a journey to find the meaning of Sal’s episodes and make them stop. It appears the visions have a relationship to history and are connected to Flavius Josephus, a historian and descendent of an old Jewish family. Josephus was a top military commander in the Jewish Army in the Galilee and allegedly defected to the Romans after the siege of the fortress city of Jotapata. As the quest evolves, others become deeply involved, including a psychiatrist, his nurse, a priest and a rabbi. An archaeologist, who calls himself a time detective, is also called in to help them in their search. They learn the dagger, which belonged to the ancient lawgiver, Hammurabi, was passed down through generations of Babylonian Emperors, and is now being sought by the Sicarians, a secret band of assassins who threaten the lives of those involved.

Currently in his 88th year, Jay Cooper has had an extensive background in military service, law, education and the aerospace industry. This experience, along with a life-long passion for history, became the basis for Hammurabi’s Dagger, his first novel. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Mr. Cooper was a World War II Merchant Marine radio operator, traversing the Pacific on an oil tanker that brought supplies to the troops. After graduating the University of Pittsburgh law school, he spent a few years in private practice, then signed on as a U.S. Air Force Assistant Judge Advocate working with the Strategic Air Command and Air Force Logistics Command. While stationed in Morocco, he served as liaison to the International Court in Tangiers where he negotiated international agreements in Europe and Africa. Mr. Cooper remained in the Air Force JAG as a reservist, eventually retiring after 31 years as a full colonel. During this time his legal career continued first as a civilian Chief of Procurement Law for McClellan Air Force Base, followed by Division Legal Counsel for Litton Industries, then Legal Counsel for Ford Aerospace, and finally 17 years as a Corporate Director of Small and Minority Business for Northrop Grumman. While at Northrop he developed training courses on TQM and Negotiation Tactics and served as liaison to the U.S. Congress, testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Senate Small Business Committee and White House Committee on Minority Business. His extensive teaching career includes graduate and undergrad-level courses in international law, business and legal ethics, and government contracts at Stanford, UCLA, Webster University, and a number of community colleges. He has been a guest lecturer at the U.S. Department of Commerce and, during his retirement years, has led seminars for Osher Lifelong Learning through the UCI extension on topics including WWII and Famous Trials in History. In addition to his JD law degree and BA in history and political science, Mr. Cooper is a member of the State Supreme Court Bar in Pennsylvania, Ohio and California and is a cum laude graduate of National Defense University Industrial War College. He and his wife, Judy, have been married 51 years and live in Corona del Mar, California. They have two grown children, Beth and Bryan.