Author Description

Readers' Favorite 2020 Book Award Winner, Fiction Cultural A terrorist bombing in Bergama, Turkey kills twenty-three people including three children. Modern Bergama is built on the site of ancient Pergamon, a city whose art and wealth and culture rivaled Athens. It was also the home of the Aesklepion, the world's greatest healing center, and the birthplace of Galen, the Roman Empire's most famous doctor. Tuğçe Iskan, a Turkish Ministry investigator, finds evidence that links the terrorism to a powerful criminal family and to Galen's life and Pergamon's lost treasures. But Iskan is alone, an outcast in the Ministry because she is honest, diligent, and a woman. As Iskan delves more deeply into the heinous attack, she needs allies outside the Ministry. She must turn to Özlem Boroğlu, a local archeologist, and Boroğlu's daughter Elif, an artist with an affinity for ancient Aegean goddesses. Can these three women defeat ISIL terrorists, criminal oligarchs, and corrupt officials? Can they even survive? "I have never read a book like this before and it kept me engaged throughout... I loved how we had glimpses of the past that connected to the present and even had meaning and guidance for our future. It is a truly special novel." -CVEGNAD, Working Mommy Journal "I devoured the historical and cultural aspects of the story.... Terrorism, antiquities, power, goddesses, brutality, corruption, revenge...I found myself holding my breath, awaiting the outcome. Amberg created characters that, good or bad, evoke an emotion from the reader. Complicated family relationships. Anger, heartbreak...both emotions hit me time and time again. Superb writing." -Betty Taylor, Reading is My Passion "The main characters and their heart and strength pull you into the story and keep you interested through the twists and turns and the suspense." -GranthamLynn, My Reading Journeys "Following the past of the artifacts and people just trying to survive kept me engros