Rika Teferi, a former soldier in Eritrea’s war for independence, is working on her doctorate in the Cairo Museum when an accidental tea spill uncovers hidden writing on a papyrus written by Queen Tiye to her youngest son, Tutankhamun.  Horrified at the spill but aching to read the entire secret text, ...

In 1559, forty-nine Spaniards exploring a tributary of the Orinoco River reached a sheer-sided, cloud-capped mountain called Tepui Zupay.  When they tried to climb it, all but six of them were slaughtered by Amazons.  Or so claimed Friar Sylvestre, the expedition’s chronicler.  But Sylvestre made ...

Eric Foster, the best student at the world’s top perfume school, creates a perfume he calls Balquees, a formulation based on the fragrance the Queen of Sheba wore to seduce King Solomon.  Upon testing it surreptitiously at a gathering of glitterati in the Pantheon in Paris, he discovers that it works ...