The Drowning King

In this dramatic sequel to Cleopatra's Shadows, four years have passed since Berenice's execution, and Arsinoe and her sister Cleopatra face a terrible choice: to allow the Roman army to siphon power from their ailing father, or to take matters-and the throne-into their own hands.

With the last breath extinguished from the Piper's lungs and Cleopatra and her younger brother, Ptolemy, established on the throne, it's the dawning of a new era for Alexandria. Long overlooked by his father in favor of the beguiling Cleopatra, eleven-year-old Ptolemy is desperate to assert himself as a man and as a king. But he and his advisors are no match for Queen Cleopatra, who's quick to establish her primacy throughout the land-from Alexandria to Upper Egypt.

When, a year later, Cleopatra alienates Rome's remaining legions and flees the palace, Ptolemy finally gets his first taste of power, though not without its complications: Arsinoe and Cleopatra have joined forces in Egypt, and Ptolemy must prepare to meet their army head-on and prove his ruthlessness to Caesar. Despite mounting doubts about where her sister's loyalties lie, Arsinoe has remained faithful to her. But when news comes that Cleopatra has manipulated Caesar to regain the throne and embraced Rome's dominance, Arsinoe grapples with the unsettling realization that the Piper and his knavish ways live on in Cleopatra...

Torn between her warring siblings and sensing her own nascent hunger to lead rising within, Arsinoe must choose whether it will be her dear sister or brother she irrevocably betrays and which side to take-a decision that will determine the fate of a kingdom, and all the future of history.

Emily Holleman, a graduate of Yale University, spent several years as an editor for Salon-a job she left to follow Arsinoe and her quest for the throne of Egypt. Currently based in Brooklyn, she has devoted the past three years to reading and writing about the Ptolemies and is, like Arsinoe, a younger sister. She is the author of Cleopatra's Shadows: A Fall of Egypt Novel.