Nefertiti - Hardcover

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...

Nick Drake was born in 1961. He is a screenwriter and an award-winning poet. He has been Literary Associate at the National Theatre and worked with Nicholas Hytner and Nicholas Wright on the stage version of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.