Marianne Luban

The Pharaoh's Barber Marianne Luban

It is the time of the great warrior pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, Thutmose the Third, circa 1450 BCE. During one of his military campaigns in the land of Canaan, a lad from there, named Levi, is enslaved and, by the time he is 18, circumstances lead him to become the king's personal barber. Little by little, the barber learns the dark secrets of the royal household, past and present. It is a complicated, opulent, environment, but all the splendor is permeated with unhappiness. The harem, particularly, holds a number of dissatisfied females, some rivals and some allies. The palace is full of captives from various foreign lands, speaking different tongues, but everyone there is loyal to someone, either from love or from fear. It takes the murder of a young woman for the pharaoh, invincible on the field of battle, to realize just how much he is at the mercy of his own servants. But who killed the beautiful Satiah and why?