The Amarna Mysteries

Three deaths 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 Tutankhamun's reign (1332 to 1323 BCE) at the close of Egypt's 18th Dynasty, the turbulent decade spanning his coronation to his 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.

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.

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.

Readers will notice that the timelines of Book 1 and Book 2 overlap, and that Book 2 and Book 3 share a transitional year. This is deliberate: each investigation runs in parallel with events the previous book did not yet have access to, and the overlapping chronology lets the series re-examine earlier moments with new evidence. The order in which Nefertiti learns things is not always the order in which they happened.

The Poisoner's Throne will publish in July 2026 as a standalone novel, offering a complete mystery with a satisfying resolution. Books 2 through 4 will publish simultaneously as a trilogy in late 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 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.

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

Companion essays on the craft questions behind the novels — the forensic, geographic, and bureaucratic details that shape how the mysteries unfold:

• Healers, poisons, and the bitter seed — what ancient Egyptian medical papyri actually say about toxicology, and why it matters for a forensic whodunit
• Akhetaten, Memphis, and the geography of the series — how distance, river travel, and rival capitals structure the plots
• Scribes, brushes, and bureaucracy — the paper trail that makes an 18th Dynasty investigation possible
• Naming in ancient Egypt — why the same person appears under several names, and how the novels handle it

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:

• The Amarna Period: Egypt's most volatile decade
• Akhenaten's religious revolution and its collapse
• The royal women of Amarna — Nefertiti, Kiya, Meritaten, and the daughters
• Who was Neferneferuaten? — the succession question that still divides Egyptologists
• The Amarna succession and its aftermath — what happened after Akhenaten

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, including the generation of initial drafts as well as historical verification, structural analysis, and editorial revision. He functions as creative director of the work, reading, evaluating, and revising every sentence before publication. 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) will publish in July 2026. Books 2 through 4 will publish as a trilogy in late 2026.