Egyptian intrigue
NICK RENNISON commends a tale of murder, betrayal and political ambition set in Cleopatra’s court
Death of an Eye by Dana Stabenow Head of Zeus, 256 pages, £18.99
Best known for a series of contemporary crime novels featuring Kate Shugak, a private investigator in Alaska, Dana Stabenow has turned her attention to ancient Egypt for her new book. The setting is Alexandria in the time of Cleopatra. Multicultural and multi-ethnic, the city is the capital of the queen’s realm and a hotbed of intrigue and potential treachery. Cleopatra is the latest monarch in a Greek dynasty, ruling over native Egyptians, but only with the co-operation of the real power in the Mediterranean: the expanding Roman empire. She has enemies on all sides, from her conniving, dissipated brother and co-ruler, Ptolemy, eager to seize the throne for himself alone, to the Romans jostling for position in the entourage of her lover, Julius Caesar.
When a shipment of newly minted coins from Cyprus goes missing and one of her most trusted servants – the so-called ‘Eye of Isis’ – is found murdered, Cleopatra turns for help to her childhood friend Tetisheri. The daughter of a rich merchant, Tetisheri is a shrewd and sharply intelligent young woman with a troubled past. As she investigates the killing of the ‘Eye’ and the disappearance of the money Cleopatra badly needs to prop up her government, Tetisheri is drawn inexorably into danger. Both Ptolemy and her violent ex-husband, the Egyptian nobleman Hunefer, have reasons to hate her. The Roman senator Cassius Longinus, and his two dissolute sons, are also out to cause trouble. A visit to Cyprus uncovers another suspicious death, and Tetisheri begins to realise that there are few people she can trust. Even Cleopatra is keeping important facts from her. Perhaps only Apollodorus, an enigmatic ex-gladiator who is the queen’s personal bodyguard, is on her side.
Death of an Eye works well as an engaging mystery. Nitpickers might want to question whether any woman in ancient Egypt would have had quite the freedom to investigate crime and murder in the way Stabenow’s heroine does, but this first adventure for Tetisheri neatly sets the scene for what promises to be an entertaining series.