Three rulers die within forty-one days. A nine-year-old boy inherits the throne of the most powerful kingdom on earth. And a queen with no official power begins the most dangerous investigation in Egyptian history.
The Amarna Mysteries is a four-book historical fiction series set during Egypt's 18th Dynasty (1332 to 1323 BCE), the turbulent decade spanning Tutankhamun's reign from coronation to death. The series follows Queen Nefertiti as she investigates murder and conspiracy at the highest levels of the Egyptian state, navigating a world of palace intrigue, religious upheaval, and international espionage.
A Detective Like No Other
Nefertiti is not a conventional sleuth. She is a former Great Royal Wife, stripped of public authority but not of intellect, courage, or access. Living under surveillance in the Royal Residence, she operates within constraints that would paralyze a lesser mind. She cannot accuse openly. She cannot compel testimony. She cannot act without risking the stability of a kingdom already fracturing under religious revolution and political betrayal.
What she can do is observe, record, and wait. Her method is patience turned into a weapon: gathering evidence across years, reading the administrative records of a document-driven state, and trusting that the truth, once preserved, will eventually find its moment.
The series follows her across nine years and four investigations, each escalating in scope and personal cost.
How the Mysteries Work
These are not whodunits. The reader sees the crime and grasps early who is responsible. The tension lies elsewhere: in watching Nefertiti work within impossible constraints, gathering evidence she cannot use openly, protecting a boy-king she cannot fully trust, and confronting the question every investigation forces on her. Is justice worth the cost of the truth?
Each book shifts in tone and stakes, but the moral weight accumulates across the series. Decisions made in Book 1 cast long shadows into Book 4. The ending is not tidy. It is earned.
The Books
Book 1: The Poisoner's Throne
Genre: Forensic whodunitTimeline: 1332 to 1329 BCEPublication: June 2026 (standalone)
Three rulers die within forty-one days during the chaotic transition from Akhenaten's religious revolution to the boy-king Tutankhamun's coronation. Natural causes, or methodical murder? Nefertiti detects what others miss, and the answer she uncovers threatens everything she is trying to protect.
The Poisoner's Throne can be read as a standalone novel. It establishes the world, the investigation, and the moral framework that drives the series.
Book 2: The Hittite Reckoning
Genre: Espionage thrillerTimeline: 1330 to 1328 BCEPublication: Winter 2026 (part of the trilogy)
Egyptian military information is reaching the Hittite court. Someone inside the Egyptian state is feeding secrets to the enemy, and the leak is costing lives on the frontier. Nefertiti's second investigation pulls her into the world of international diplomacy, military loyalty, and the dangerous intersection of both.
Book 3: The Restoration Murders
Genre: Pattern investigationTimeline: 1328 to 1324 BCEPublication: Winter 2026 (part of the trilogy)
Officials overseeing the restoration of traditional temples are being murdered. The deaths appear unrelated until a pattern emerges, one that points toward the center of power. Nefertiti's investigation spans years and carries her further from the court than she has ever been, ending with a decision that changes everything.
Book 4: The Dakhamunzu Affair
Genre: Cold case reconstructionTimeline: 1324 to 1323 BCE, with an epilogue set in 1922 CEPublication: Winter 2026 (part of the trilogy)
Tutankhamun dies at eighteen. The official account says natural causes. Nefertiti knows better, and the evidence she has spent nine years assembling points to a truth the kingdom cannot survive hearing. Meanwhile, a widowed queen sends an unprecedented letter to the Hittite king, requesting a prince as husband. The consequences of that letter will echo across the ancient world.
The epilogue steps forward three thousand years to November 1922, when Howard Carter opens the tomb and begins to discover what survived and what did not.
Publication Plan
The Poisoner's Throne publishes in June 2026 as a standalone novel, offering a complete mystery with a satisfying resolution. Books 2 through 4 publish simultaneously as a trilogy in winter 2026, carrying the narrative through to its conclusion.
This structure lets new readers enter the series with a single commitment. Those who want the full arc can continue directly into the trilogy.
Published by The WordFish Group GmbH, Basel, Switzerland. Distributed through PublishDrive. Available in print (5.5 x 8.5 inch trim) and digital formats.
The Twelve Hours of Night
The Twelve Hours of Night: Stories from The Amarna Mysteries is a short-story anthology planned for 2027. Set in and around the world of the series, the collection explores characters, moments, and mysteries that the novels touch only in passing.
Historical Accuracy as a Design Principle
The Amarna Mysteries is not historical fiction that borrows a setting and discards the evidence. The series draws on the work of Aidan Dodson, Barry Kemp, Zahi Hawass, Juan Antonio Belmonte, and others. Where the evidence is ambiguous or disputed, the series states its chosen interpretation explicitly. Creative invention is confined to the genuine gaps in the archaeological record.
The result is fiction that respects what is known, acknowledges what is debated, and imagines only where the evidence is silent.
Detailed historical notes and an annotated bibliography for each book are available in the Historical Notes section of this site rather than in the books themselves, keeping the narrative uncluttered while giving readers full access to the scholarship behind the story.
For Readers Who Love
The Amarna Mysteries will resonate with readers who enjoy:
C.J. Sansom's Shardlake series, for its marriage of historical rigor and fair-play mystery
Sharon Kay Penman, for literary quality in a historical setting
Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy, for political complexity told through a single consciousness
Prestige television storytelling: slow-burn tension, moral ambiguity, character-driven narrative
Ancient Egypt treated seriously rather than as fantasy or romance
Go Deeper into the Series
The Poisoner's Throne: where to start
Reading order: standalone or series?
Nefertiti as detective: the woman behind the investigation
The world of The Amarna Mysteries: a reader's guide to the setting
What's real and what's invented: historical accuracy in the series
The winter 2026 trilogy: what comes next
The History Behind the Fiction
For readers who want to understand the real events, people, and evidence behind the fiction, the Amarna Period Authority section of this site explores the history in depth. Start here:
A.J. Tilke brings forty years of cross-disciplinary experience in economics, IT, telecommunications, and project management to historical fiction. With university studies in both archaeology and economics, he approaches the Amarna period as both a scholar and a storyteller.
He is transparent about his use of AI-assisted tools in the writing process, functioning as creative director of a managed project team that includes computational tools alongside traditional research methods. This approach is detailed in the Methodology section of this site.
He publishes through The WordFish Group GmbH, based in Basel, Switzerland.
The Poisoner's Throne (Book 1) publishes June 2026. Books 2 through 4 publish as a trilogy in winter 2026.
