Queen of Kings

Maria Dahvana Headley is the author of The Year of Yes: A Memoir, which has been translated into 9 languages and optioned for television and film. Her writing has also appeared in a number of literary anthologies plus publications such as The New York Times, Elle and the Washington Post. As a playwright, she is the creator of The Upstart Crow Project, an organization which is commissioning 37 female playwrights to adapt all the plays of Shakespeare into contemporary versions. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and lives in Seattle, with her husband, the playwright and screenwriter Robert Schenkkan. Queen of Kings is her first novel.

"It's rare that a first novel is so magical, so dark, so well-researched, so smart or so compelling. Queen of Kings is a powerful work of the imagination, stalking the murky, dangerous territory between Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned and Robert Graves' I, Claudius and should appeal to those who like their historical fiction and those who crave dark magics and sharp teeth in the night. I can't wait to read what Ms Headley writes next" -- NEIL GAIMAN "A page-turner: an epic historical thriller that combines a great love story with a slew of witches, gods, ghosts and classical monsters. Add the Roman army and Cleopatra and it is obvious: this is the book readers have been waiting for" -- DANIELLE TRUSSONI, bestselling author of "Angelology" "Serpents, sorcerers, sex! Egypt, Rome, Greece! A brilliantly energetic smorgasbord. Gird your loins, dear readers, because Queen of Kings is on the loose! Hug your loved ones, tuck your head firmly between your knees, and hope that you're praying to the correct god. Because if you're not? Well, read this book to discover your fate..." -- GARTH STEIN. bestelling author of "The Art of Racing in the Rain" "Like a hipper and darker 21st century Anne Rice. If you like your history mixed with fiction, and full of sex and magic and violence - and let's face it, that's how we all prefer it - then you're in for a hell of a ride" -- ED BRUBAKER, writer of "The Death of Captain America" "Mixes dark fantasy and historical fiction with large dollops of American Gods-style mythological bricolage... It's to Headley's credit that she makes this audaciously naff premise not only work, but work well... This is a shamelessly fun pop-historical blockbuster" SFX Magazine