Diana Wilder

The City of Refuge: Book I of the Memphis Cycle (Volume 1) Diana Wilder 2nd edition

Once the glory of Akhenaten's reign, the imperial city lies tangled in the raveled ends of old plots, wrecked, abandoned, and rumored to be accursed. When Commander Khonsu is ordered to escort a royal delegation to the deserted capital to investigate reopening its quarries, he finds the assignment anything but routine, beginning with Lord Nebamun, the priest who commands the delegation. Nebamun is a man without a past who does not fear ghosts, curses or the spirits said to prowl the surrounding hills and scream in the night. As Khonsu watches Lord Nebamun move through the undercurrents of old strife and treachery, he begins to suspect that the man has come to put the spirits of the city to rest once and for all, whatever the cost. The City of Refuge is a mystery set in Egypt after the reign of Akhenaten. It is a story of revenge and renewal, and one man's discovery that while the Paths of Righteousness may lie through peril, they will always bring you home.