A theft followed by murderous ambushes in Morocco; a former mullah awakened in the predawn darkness by the voice of his long dead wife in Iran; a successful trial lawyer dead of an apparent heart attack and a police captain found shot to death in New Orleans. Attorney Owen Macauley is about to find himself at the center of the vortex created by these events, a place where two families and their histories are about to be entwined, and where his own past will have to be confronted as it becomes linked to theirs. For a thousand years the Al Katib family has survived wars, strife and religious bigotry while carefully guarding its founding secret, a work of genius from eleventh century Spain that has allowed its Jewish, Christian and Muslim branches to live in harmony - but quietly, because its secret would have provided religious fanatics with grounds to execute all its members. In its over 200 years in New Orleans the Pareeja family has had to battle vicious racism and cultural animosity for its survival - struggles which took their toll on all involved, ennobling some while corrupting others. And now Owen Macauley needs to find what was stolen from the Al Katib's to defend Huey Pareeja, jailed and charged with the murder of the police captain, while Zahra Al Katib desperately needs its return for very personal reasons. Former mullah Hosain Neyrizi seeks it in hopes that it may finally take him beyond the loss of his wife and faith, but the most extreme fundamentalist Ayatollah in Iran wants it destroyed. And for undisclosed reasons the Vatican has ordered Monsignor Gene G. Rose, still mourning the death of his estranged Jewish father, to find it, while Tulane Professor and Holocaust survivor Gilda Rabinowieczki seeks it as the crowning achievement of an otherwise lackluster career and a buffer against the memories she can no longer suppress. All will find that their quest has profound and unexpected consequences. Its existence no longer a secret, the thousand year old gauntlet thrown at the feet of three religions again waits to be picked up and accepted - or denied. Because the only thing it can no longer allow is to be ignored. "Different Springs is unlike any book you have ever read. A lawyer, a Holocaust survivor, a gauntlet, a theft, an ancient family, a guarded secret, religious harmony, murder, the Vatican, and history spanning from the Middle Ages of Spain to modern New Orleans will have your head reeling as this fast paced, non-stop action story sucks you in and eats you alive... If you are looking for something new and different, this is definitely a book you will want to pick up, and you will be recommending it to your friends in no time." - San Francisco Book Review ..". Coleman artistically weaves history from many different backgrounds and relations ...to tell a great story of historical and cultural value...in a way that is almost romantic... If you enjoy a good historical fiction novel, this one is a great recommendation for you." Portland Book Review