Book excerpt: From a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a political thriller set during the religious revolts surrounding Tutankhamun’srise to power in Egypt. The spectacular conclusion to the Egyptian epic begun in A God Against the Gods. After his brother’s assassination, a new pharaoh must take the throne and battle the corrupt and violent priesthood. His name is TUTANKHAMUN. Pulitzer Prize–winning author Allen Drury paints a vivid, dramatic picture of the most tumultuous times in one of the greatest empires in human history. Following the murder of Akhenaten and the beautiful Nefertiti and the religious uproar that threatens to tear Egypt apart, the pharaoh has to defy the gods in order to rule his people. A masterly recreation of ancient Egypt with all its pomp, glory, politics, and treachery, Return to Thebes brings legendary titans of history to life, with all their tragic—and all too human—flaws.