She is called 'The Perfect One', the most famous and beautiful woman in the world. Nefertiti rules equally with her husband, the Pharaoh Akhenaten, over the richest, most sophisticated and powerful society in the modern world. At home the wealthy enjoy their hunts and love affairs, their new jewellery and fashions, and invest their money in elaborate tombs for the afterlife. The rest of the population labour on the land as they have done since time began. Yet behind the glorious facades of luxury and pleasure an epic power struggle is taking place; Akhenaten and Nefertiti inaugurate an enlightened new religion, and build a magnificent and mysterious new capital in the desert in which to worship the God of the Sun. The delicate balance of power in Egypt is thrown into confusion; the old priesthood is stripped of its traditional authority and wealth, the army is enraged by the growing turbulence on the country's borders, 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, shortly before the crucial festival to celebrate the new capital, to which rulers and representatives from across the world are invited to attend, 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...
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Nefertiti (Rai Rahotep 1)
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
Review
"An exciting and atmospheric thriller...Full of surprises from the very first line...Takes the readers 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 ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"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 ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
A brilliantly compelling and stunningly evocative literary thriller set in Ancient Egypt
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ancient Egypt? Everyone has a fascination with ancient Egypt. The pyramids, the mummies and a pantheon of strange chimeric beings speak of a culture that is far removed from ours yet one which we seem very familiar with given its exposure in the media.
Nefertiti is a detective novel set within this culture. Rahotep, a Seeker of Mysteries, is summoned to the new city of Akhetaten to investigate the disappearance of Pharaoh Akhenaten's queen Nefertiti. As an added incentive to his usual salary he is promised a painful death both for himself and his beloved family should he fail.
Nick Drake (not, apparently, the musician) immerses us in Rahotep's world; the imagery is vivid -- almost cinematic -- though the language is modern and, sadly, prone to anachronistic metaphors. By telling the whole story from Rahotep's perspective, we are sucked immersively into the narrative. I really enjoyed the atmospheric way the scenes were set and the immediacy of the way the story was told.
What let Nefertiti down was that it wasn't a particularly good story. I found it quite predictable and I was disappointed by the way Rahotep was tossed around by events. Although the story unfolds around him, he has little direct influence on their outcome, despite being our main protagonist. He discovers things for it to become evident that these were already known or were completely inconsequential and were the main character to be removed from the story it would proceed in much the same way.
It's a first novel though and Drake's still learning his craft. So while I was disappointed, there was enough promise in the telling of the story that I'll give Rahotep another chance and read the sequel some time in the hope that the plotting has improved.
Nefertiti is a detective novel set within this culture. Rahotep, a Seeker of Mysteries, is summoned to the new city of Akhetaten to investigate the disappearance of Pharaoh Akhenaten's queen Nefertiti. As an added incentive to his usual salary he is promised a painful death both for himself and his beloved family should he fail.
Nick Drake (not, apparently, the musician) immerses us in Rahotep's world; the imagery is vivid -- almost cinematic -- though the language is modern and, sadly, prone to anachronistic metaphors. By telling the whole story from Rahotep's perspective, we are sucked immersively into the narrative. I really enjoyed the atmospheric way the scenes were set and the immediacy of the way the story was told.
What let Nefertiti down was that it wasn't a particularly good story. I found it quite predictable and I was disappointed by the way Rahotep was tossed around by events. Although the story unfolds around him, he has little direct influence on their outcome, despite being our main protagonist. He discovers things for it to become evident that these were already known or were completely inconsequential and were the main character to be removed from the story it would proceed in much the same way.
It's a first novel though and Drake's still learning his craft. So while I was disappointed, there was enough promise in the telling of the story that I'll give Rahotep another chance and read the sequel some time in the hope that the plotting has improved.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By gilly8
Format:Paperback
Hopefully the author will continue the career of the Medjay detective Rahotep. With the fall of Akhenaten, the affairs of Egypt are going to get worse and worse, in the next few years. The plot of the story was rather unbelievable, but most detective stories are--- they are usually more about the people in them and what they go through to solve the mystery than a truly believable plot anyway. Rahotep does solve it, though the ending sort of surprised me, not to give it away, but I didn't expect what he found when he got home, not in that time and place and not with everyone he had angered...
Anyway. Its a fascinating period of time and the Medjay were real people, originally a Nubian tribe who for centuries were first warriors for phaoraoh and then eventually the hereditary police force. The author doesn't clarify that, as Lauren Haney does in her excellent series about the fictional Lt Bak (also a mystery/police series)who leads a group of Medjay at the edge of the empire in the days of Queen Hatshepsut. And to go way back, the first pact between Egyptians and Medjay can be read about in Pauline Gedge's wonderful trilogy: "Lord of the Two Lands" where the Medjay tribesmen help the descendents of last Pharaohs fight to free Egypt from the Hyksos conquerors, centuries before the events in this book.
A much superior book if you are fascinated as I am with Nefertiti is the non-fiction book by Nicholas Reeves: "Akhenaten, Egypt's False Prophet" which is highly readable, loaded with excellent photographs from the carvings and images of the era, and tells the whole true history of the Amarna era as it is now known to be. NOTE: the book should be called "Nefertiti: the Book of the Dead Nefertiti (Rai Rahotep 1)" There is a typo on the title in the review.
Anyway. Its a fascinating period of time and the Medjay were real people, originally a Nubian tribe who for centuries were first warriors for phaoraoh and then eventually the hereditary police force. The author doesn't clarify that, as Lauren Haney does in her excellent series about the fictional Lt Bak (also a mystery/police series)who leads a group of Medjay at the edge of the empire in the days of Queen Hatshepsut. And to go way back, the first pact between Egyptians and Medjay can be read about in Pauline Gedge's wonderful trilogy: "Lord of the Two Lands" where the Medjay tribesmen help the descendents of last Pharaohs fight to free Egypt from the Hyksos conquerors, centuries before the events in this book.
A much superior book if you are fascinated as I am with Nefertiti is the non-fiction book by Nicholas Reeves: "Akhenaten, Egypt's False Prophet" which is highly readable, loaded with excellent photographs from the carvings and images of the era, and tells the whole true history of the Amarna era as it is now known to be. NOTE: the book should be called "Nefertiti: the Book of the Dead Nefertiti (Rai Rahotep 1)" There is a typo on the title in the review.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Informative but poorly plotted
It's difficult to credit some of the reviews for this book. For any aficionado of the crime/thriller genre, this is loosely plotted and in places quite poorly written. Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2009 by Cyrano
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very well written suspense novel
I must admit that I chose this book as a birthday gift rather by chance. Yet was not disappointed. For everyone who is interested in Ancient Egypt - from Cleopatra's nose to the... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2008 by R. Nathaniel
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Nefertiti'--a royal whodunit!
It's an incredibly confusing, frustrating, and frightening time in Ancient Egypt. The "heretic" Akhenaten is on the throne as pharoah and he is more than determined to bring Egypt... Read more
Published on 16 July 2007 by Billy J. Hobbs
1.0 out of 5 stars
A glorious title, a dreary story
One if not the worst book I've read for years, where can I start, well it takes ages to set the scene, and while the lead is supposed to be a skilful investigator, his best... Read more
Published on 15 Jun 2007 by H. Satti
5.0 out of 5 stars
Egypt's Sun Queen : a gripping and dark tale set in the most...
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. Read more
Published on 28 May 2007 by Amelrode
4.0 out of 5 stars
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! Read more
Published on 6 May 2007 by RJ Lane
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Novel of Ancient Egypt
Apart from possibly Tutanhamun, Nefertiti is probably the most famous name to come out of Ancient Egypt, virtually anyone you ask would be able to tell you that she was a Queen of... Read more
Published on 8 April 2007 by J. Chippindale
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book is very informative
I have watched the movie The Mummy. That movie revolves arround this book, it was this book and after opening it the process of evil things happening starts and soon one after the... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2007 by Hamed Sajid Mohammed
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great concept and execution!
I was intrigued by the way the history and culture of ancient Egypy were entwined into a mystery plot, that in itself is based on reality. Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2007 by Stupendous Star
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well written and great sense of place and time
The writing style and ideas in this original novel are great. I did find that the story didn't move along fast enough and there weren't many clues for the reader to pick up as in... Read more
Published on 18 Dec 2006 by Millions
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
