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Egypt during the eighteenth dynasty is peaceful and prosperous under the joint rule of the pharaohs Amenhotep III and IV-until the younger pharaoh begins to dream new and terrifying dreams.

Ptah-hotep, a young peasant boy studying to be a scribe, wants to live a simple life in a hut on the Nile River with his lover Kheperren and their dog Wolf-until Amenhotep IV appoints him as royal scribe. How long will Ptah-hotep survive there, surrounded by bitterly envious rivals and enemies?

The child princess Mutnodjme sees her beautiful sister Nefertiti married off to the impotent young Amenhotep. But Nefertiti must bear royal children, so the ladies of the court devise a shocking plan.

Kheperren, meanwhile, serves as scribe to the daring teenage general Horemheb. But while the pharaoh's shrinking army guards the land of the Nile from enemies on every border, a far greater menace impends, for the newly renamed Akhnaten, not content with his own devotion to one god alone, plans to suppress the worship of all other gods in the Black Land.

Members of his horrified court soon realize that the pharaoh is not merely deformed but irretrievably mad and that the biggest danger to the empire is within the royal palace itself.

Kerry Greenwood was born in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, and after wandering far and wide, she returned to live there. She has degrees in English and law from Melbourne University and was admitted to the legal profession in 1982. She is the author of many crime novels, science fiction, nonfiction, and children's books, as well as a number of plays. She has won numerous awards, including the Aurealis Award for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction, Young Adult Division, Best Novel, 1996; and the Davitt Award in 2002, 2006, and 2007. In 2003 she was awarded the Ned Kelly Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Crime Writers Association of Australia.

Paul Michael Garcia, an AudioFile Earphones Award winner and former company member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, received his classical training in theater from Southern Oregon University, where he worked as an actor, director, and designer.

Emily Bauer is an award-winning voice-over actress who has read for dozens of popular audiobooks for children and adults, including Margery Williams's Velveteen Rabbit, Meg Cabot's Insatiable, and Ann Aguirre's Enclave. Her film credits include Mona Lisa Smile and Long Distance. She has done voice-overs for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Pokemon and has voiced scores of TV and radio commercials as well as cartoons, talking toys, and video games.