Clytemnestra

Raised a princess in Sparta, Clytemnestra understands that leaders make many sacrifices. But she is shocked when she is forced to marry the murderer of her husband and firstborn child. Though she wields great power as High Queen of Mycenae, and adores her younger children, being Agamemnon's wife is difficult - and becomes harder after her sister Helen's departure for Troy ignites the greatest war the world has ever seen. Clytemnestra remains determined to protect her children and her city. But then a long absent prince - her husband's hated rival - begins to claim her heart... "Clytemnestra: The Mother's Blade is the most action-packed and thrilling Tapestry of Bronze novel yet. One can imagine Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway drooling over this retelling at the prospect of playing such a character onscreen... this book has it all: the intellectual act of re-envisioning the distant Hellenic past as plausible historical fact, the uncanny retelling of some very familiar stories in a strikingly new way and the pleasures of a thrilling beach read - all at once. There are even a few distant echoes of the present in this vividly imagined antiquity. As wise old Nestor notes, "It is easy to make promises before one takes power, but difficult to keep them afterwards." And war, Tyndareus cautions, "is a ruler's weightiest decision, and should not be taken lightly" - be it with Thebes, Mycenae, Troy, Venezuela or North Korea. Agamemnon is dead; long live Agamemnon...."

- Bob Mielke, professor of English, Truman State University