The Drowning King

February 1, 2017
Second in Holleman's series about the last of the pharaohs that began with Cleopatra's Shadows (2015).Now that Cleopatra's sister Berenice has been deposed and beheaded, Ptolemy the Piper, their father, backed by a few Roman legions, has reclaimed the throne, but not for long. As the terminally ill king lingers overlong, Cleopatra, spurred on by younger sister Arsinoe, age 15, hastens matters with a dose of hemlock. The Piper's will provides that his son, 11-year-old Prince Ptolemy, will rule jointly with Cleopatra. (Tradition also dictates that brother and sister marry, and a purely ceremonial wedding ensues.) In chapters headed "Brother" and "Sister," Ptolemy and Arsinoe alternate points of view, sharing the conflicted perspectives of younger siblings torn between succumbing to Cleopatra's charisma and wanting to kill her. Cleopatra and Ptolemy plot to depose each other, both raising armies, and Arsinoe throws in her lot, serially, with each. Ptolemy heeds some bad advice to greet Pompey's proffered alliance by beheading that Roman general, hoping to win Pompey's rival, the more powerful Julius Caesar, to his side. This tactic backfires, though, when Cleopatra beats Ptolemy to a meeting with Caesar and soon has Rome's wiliest commander and best-known seducer in her thrall. Ptolemy finds himself confined to quarters when his plot to poison Caesar is discovered thanks to leaked pillow talk. With Caesar's backing, Cleopatra is on track to rule alone, but Ptolemy and Arsinoe, each surrounded by cabals of scheming courtiers, still have many tricks up their respective sleeves. On vivid display here are the paradoxical politics of a monarchy pitted against, and propped up by, a foreign imperialistic juggernaut. (The Ptolemaic dynasty itself, as Holleman's many ironic observations make clear, was founded by conquering Greeks.) Holleman's poetic language contributes to the atmosphere of intrigue and menace, expertly capturing the roiling anxieties of the principals as they battle for Rome's scraps. Holleman's gift of characterization will have readers rooting for all three Egyptian royals, hoping against historical fact that this sibling rivalry has no losers--at least not until the next installment.

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March 15, 2017
Cleopatra's father, the Piper, is dying. But not quickly enough. Giving fate a shove, Cleopatra is free to rule, but only within a union to her teenage brother Ptolemy XIII. Instead, Cleopatra and her sister and close confidant, Arsinoe, soon face off in battle against their brother, until Julius Caesar arrives on the scene. Caesar quickly succumbs to Cleopatra's persuasion, and the two become lovers, uniting Egypt and Rome with a child on the way. However, the two underestimate Arsinoe, and her own desire for power is soon ignited by the growing distance between the sisters and their disagreements over Rome's power over Egypt. Soon Arsinoe rallies the troops to free Alexandria from Rome's influence and begins her own battle for the kingdom. Interspersed with tense battles and smoldering sensuality, Holleman's follow-up to Cleopatra's Shadows (2015) continues the story of the historically embattled Egyptian royal family and its overlap with the life of Julius Caesar.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2016

Second in a series begun auspiciously with Cleopatra's Shadows, this book limns bloody conflict between Cleopatra and younger brother Ptolemy. With a 35,000-copy first printing and sold in the UK for a TV series.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2017

In this sequel to Cleopatra's Shadows, the Ptolemaic dynasty falls into disarray after the death of the Piper and the execution of his oldest daughter. The pharaoh's surviving children are locked in a struggle for control of Egypt. Ptolemy, the first son, is eager to marry one of his sisters, assuring the continuation of the pure line of rulers, and take the throne, but his youth and ineptitude put him at a distinct disadvantage to his older, and vastly more devious, sisters, Cleopatra and Arsinoe. After the two girls escape from Egypt and Rome's occupying legions, they recruit an army in Syria and return in the hopes of recapturing Alexandria. Cleopatra's choice to join forces with Julius Caesar casts the fate of the dynasty into even more uncertainty with open civil war breaking out. The narrative is told from each sibling's perspective through dynamic alternating chapters. The constant shifting of alliances among the protagonists speaks to the instability of the time and the region. VERDICT Readers fascinated by political intrigue and dynasty building of the ancient world will enjoy this, especially if they have read the first volume. [See Prepub Alert, 10/31/16.]--Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage P.L., AK

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.