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In a world where power is seized through bloodshed and betrayal, one woman refuses to be erased.
The Byzantine Empire is no place for a female ruler-yet Irini of Athens will stop at nothing to claim her rightful place. Unlike the emperors before her, she is forced to fight traitors and backstabbers as well as the relentless grip of a world that refuses to see a woman as sovereign. As empress, she must outmaneuver the church, defy the army generals who refuse her commands, and be sharper than any blade.
Now, in this explosive final installment of the Empress Irini Series, she faces her greatest battle yet. After reclaiming the throne, she ensnares her son, Constantine, in a web of deception, forcing him to divorce Maria and banishing his wife and daughters to Abbess Thekla's island convent-where Maria slowly descends into madness. But Irini's thirst for power is insatiable.
Manipulating Constantine into striking against the very soldiers who once imprisoned her, she plunges the empire into a brutal civil war-army against army, mother against son.
As the conflict reaches its bloody climax, Irini makes her final, ruthless move-capturing Constantine and leaving him blinded, his power shattered. At last, she stands alone as the first woman to rule the empire.
As the throne is finally hers, one question remains: will Abbess Thekla, her former ally and closest confidante, help Irini hold on to power-or become the force that destroys her?
In a world built by men, Irini dared to rule. But at what cost?
About the author
Janet McGiffin divides her time between her apartment in Manhattan, her family in Washington State, and her friends in Athens, Greece. She was born in Fairfield, Iowa into a newspaper family and learned to write copy as a teenager by writing obituaries for the Ellensburg Daily Record in Washington state. After university, she worked for the Milwaukee Health Department where she gained first-hand knowledge for her best-selling mystery series published by Fawcett Press, NY, featuring Doctor Maxine St. Clair, an ER doctor in an inner-city hospital. She worked as a press officer for the Washington state senate, then moved to Athens, Greece where she wrote grant proposals for small non-profit women's organizations in Mediterranean countries. She also wrote a humor column for the Athens News newspaper with field archaeologist Adrian Vrettos, wrote two English language easy readers for Cambridge University Press, UK, and a series of hiking articles for greecetravel.com. She researched her Byzantine-era Empress Irini Series through extensive travel in Greece, followed by six months of research at the Bodleian libraries in Oxford, England. She enjoys hiking in Greece, England, Wales, and Scotland.
