Out of the Black Land - Softcover

Greenwood, Kerry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1464200408 ISBN 13: 9781464200403

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2013

Synopsis

PW Pick 2013

"Australian author Greenwood, having made a name for herself with the lighthearted Phryne Fisher series, succeeds brilliantly with this gripping thriller set in ancient Egypt." ―Publishers Weekly STARRED review

Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt is peaceful and prosperous under the dual 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. But Amenhotep IV appoints him Great Royal Scribe, and he is soon 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.

The Pharaoh's shrinking army under the daring teenage General Horemheb guards the Land of the Nile from enemies on every border. But a far greater menace impends.

The newly renamed Akhnaten plans to suppress the worship of all other gods in the Black Land. His horrified court soon realize that the Pharaoh is not merely deformed, but irretrievably mad; and that the greatest danger to the Empire is in the royal palace itself.

About this title

About the Author

Kerry Greenwood was born in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray 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 on the 1st April 1982, a day which she finds both soothing and significant. Kerry has written three series, a number of plays, including The Troubadours with Stephen D'Arcy, is an award-winning children's writer and has edited and contributed to several anthologies. The Phryne Fisher series (pronounced Fry-knee, to rhyme with briny) began in 1989 with Cocaine Blues which was a great success. Kerry has written twenty books in this series with no sign yet of Miss Fisher hanging up her pearl-handled pistol. Kerry says that as long as people want to read them, she can keep writing them. In 2003 Kerry won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Association.

From Booklist

Greenwood, the Australian author of the Phryne Fisher and Corinna Chapman mystery series, heads off in a radical new direction. Her new novel is set in ancient Egypt around the time of Nefertiti and Tutankhamen and concerns itself with a pharaoh’s grand—some might say megalomaniacal—plan to change the religious landscape of the country. There are also several subplots winding themselves in and around the main story (Nefertiti figures prominently in one), and the story is told in roughly alternating fashion by a pair of young scribes, one of them a sister to Nefertiti, the other a lower-class boy who dreams of a better life. Greenwood has taken a big risk here. Ancient Egypt as a source of literary material has been pretty well mined. But the novel feels fresh, partly because Greenwood isn’t insisting on shoehorning a traditional mystery plot into the book. She’s working on a much broader, epic scale that almost suggests Norman Mailer’s Ancient Evenings (1983). A real change of pace, but the majority of the author’s fans won’t be disappointed. --David Pitt

About this edition

• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1464200408
• ISBN 13: 9781464200403
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480