Product Description

Nefertiti is the most powerful, charismatic and beautiful Queen of the ancient world. With her husband, Akhenaten, she rules over an Empire at the peak of its glory and domination. Together, they have built a magnificent new city in the desert on the banks of the Nile. They are about to host kings, dignitaries and leaders from around the Empire for a vast festival to celebrate their triumph. But suddenly, Nefertiti vanishes. Rahotep is the youngest chief detective of the Thebes division; a 'Seeker of Mysteries' who knows about shadows and darkness, and who can see patterns where others cannot. His unusual talents earn him a summons to the royal court. Rahotep is given ten days to find the Queen and return her in time for the festival. Success will bring glory - but if he fails, he and his young family will die ...Closely based on historical research, "Nefertiti" tells the hidden story of the crimes, mysteries and secrets of the dark game of power played out against the vast panorama of a society in revolution.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56481 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

From the Publisher
A brilliantly compelling and stunningly evocative literary thriller set in Ancient Egypt

From the Inside Flap
‘Power is like fire. It consumes everything. And when it is gone, all that’s left is ash.’

She is called 'The Perfect One'; the most famous and beautiful woman in the ancient world. She rules with her husband Akhenaten over the most powerful, sophisticated and affluent society the world has ever seen and across an empire that stretches from Africa through the Middle East.

But behind these glorious scenes an epic power struggle is taking place; Nefertiti and Akhenaten inaugurate an enlightened new religion, and build a magnificent and mysterious new capital, Akhetaten, in which to worship the Sun God, the Aten. The delicate balance of power in Egypt is thrown into confusion; the priesthood is stripped of its traditional authority and wealth, the army is enraged by the growing turbulence in the empire, and the people resent the loss of the ancient gods. Old alliances are brought into doubt, and generations of inherited power and wealth are suddenly at stake.

And then, just days before the crucial festival to celebrate the new capital, Nefertiti suddenly vanishes. Rai Rahotep, the youngest chief
detective in the Thebes division, with a rising reputation for his original
methods, is secretly assigned by Akhenaten himself to investigate. He has ten days to find the Queen and return her in time for the celebrations. Success will bring glory – but if he fails, he and his family will die …

From the Back Cover
EGYPT 1800 BC

‘Power is like fire. It consumes everything. And when it is gone, all that’s left is ash.’

Meet Rai Rahotep, the youngest chief detective of the Thebes division, a man who knows about shadows and darkness and who can determine patterns where others cannot. His unusual talents earn him a summons to the royal court of Akhenatan at the great new capital rising out of the desert where a festival is planned to celebrate the new religion dedicated to the Sun God.

But just days before the festival is due to begin, the royal consort Nefertiti goes missing and Rai is brought in to solve the case. He has ten days to find the Queen and return her in time for the celebrations. Success will bring glory – but if he fails, he and his family will die …

‘Full of surprises from the very first line…Takes the reader on a magical mystery tour through palaces, secret passages, tombs and torture chambers’ Evening Standard

‘A richly written and historically intriguing evocation of Ancient Egypt…A genuinely ripping yarn’ The Times

‘His investigation is well plotted, the environment cleverly, credibly evoked and the characters could have sprung in 3D from their painted sarcophagi’ Literary Review

Customer Reviews

Egypt's Sun Queen : a gripping and dark tale set in the most remarkable period and personality of ancient Egypt
Nefertiti has always evoked major interest as she was at the heart of a cultural revolution of unprecedented impact in ancient Egypt: the change from multiple gods to just one. The revolution occurred at the peak of Egypt's might and led to a rapid decline.


In his first ever book Nick Drake lead the readers to the heart of it all: the court of Akhenaten and Nefertiti and its dangerous power struggles. Nick Drake puts his fictional character Rahotep into this world of Pharaoh's court and he has to solve the great mystery which turned out to be of very different nature as expected. It is strong plot, bold of characterisation, adventure and dazzling evocation of the past. The description of the ceremonies is brilliant. It is excellently plotted and superbly entertaining: in this short a page turner of first order. I am looking forward to the next book by Nick Drake!!

A BIT PREDICTABLE, BUT A PAGE-TURNER NONETHELESS
This is really just a detective thriller, following on the traditions of Morse, Frost, Wexford, Taggart, etc., etc. The twist here is that it is set in the Ancient Egypt of the Pharaohs (so perhaps Brother Cadfael is an even closer cousin.) Indeed the police force in Thebes and Akhtaten bears an uncanny resemblance to its modern counterparts - even down to irascible bosses who don't want our hero on the case and a loyal sidekick `sergeant'.

Once you settle for that, it's a fair page-turner. The case our intrepid hero, Rahotep, is pursuing is actually a missing-person problem. But there are enough violent murders and plot-twists along the way to keep interest high. The political background is well sketched in. We are in the time of Akhenaten, the pharaoh who tried to impose a monotheistic religion on his people and constructed an entire lavish new city to become its centre and his memorial. Inevitably, this leads to a dark and labyrinthine nest of political manoeuverers that takes in the royal family, the old aristocracy and a priesthood dispossessed of their traditional power and wealth, all with motives to disrupt the new order. This is what seems to lie at the root of the mysterious disappearance and possible death of Akhenaten's wife, the charismatic and beautiful Nerfertiti. It is the task of our hero, DI Rai Rahotep of the Thebes Constabulary, to find her alive before the planned great celebratory festival or pay with his life and that of his family.

The plot at times seems a little contrived as characters rather predictably turn out to be other than they seem - the bad ones can be good guys after all and vice versa. Nevertheless, the tried and tested device of imposing a rigid timescale to the investigation and the twists and turns of the narrative keep interest and excitement high and the gallery of characters prove an exotic and interesting bunch. If its evocation of a lost civilisation isn't in the class of a Mary Renault or a Robert Graves, Nick Drake's thriller is still, as they say, a good read.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DETECTIVE NOVEL
As an historian I always avoid any fiction about ancient Egypt; however, this book was bought me by my son, so I was obliged to read it! I actually enjoyed it! It is well written in rapidly moving, short chapters which do not over-intrude into the historical. The book centres on the fact that Nefertiti, wife of the heretic king Akhenaten disappeared from the 12th year of his reign. Drake offers a not unreasonable explanation, which is pieced together by the central figure, an astute official `detective' from Thebes. This Amarna period represented the most momentous and enigmatic period in the whole of ancient Egypt. This novel actually serves to give some insight into the ordinary operations and people of that period. This it does through fictitious events surrounding known `key players' of the time. If it inspires people to read more about the Amarna period (which I think it may) then it will have achieved even more than providing a good, exciting read.