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Category: Mainstream/Romance
Description: Anika Alkibiades is the most powerful, brilliant and ruthless woman straddling Europe and Asia. Hers is the Megali Idea of taking over the Government of Turkey, remold it in the glorious spirit of Byzantium, and then reappropriate Byzantium's former territories. Her dark beauty is timeless, exotic, and beguiling, men who are the movers and shakers of the land, are mere dominoes in her hand, and she is close to realizing her golden dream. She is like Catherine the Great of Russia who wanted to conquer Istanbul and replace the crescent atop the Hagia Sophia with a cross. But like all great women, Anika has one weakness: her undying passion for Shaheen, the Turk who had been her first lover.... Character Profiles: Anika Alkibiades--A Greek born in Turkey, she has risen from grinding poverty to untold riches. Powerful, brilliant and lethally ambitious, Anika is the widow and heir of Yorghos Alkibiades, the shipping billionaire whose illustrious family is traced to Byzantium (see the historical novel, Constantinople, My Love) Anika has a deep hatred of the Turks, and her dream is to restore Byzantium to its former glory. Masterminding a far-reaching, bloody plot to overthrow the Turkish Government, she is paving the road to her grandson's succession as its absolute ruler. Leyla Kayhan--raised in Turkey as the child of an American mother and Turkish father, Leyla is fiercely loyal to her father's beliefs and country. However, her sense of loyalty and identity will be tested when she falls in love with Mark, an American Jew. Mark Cohen--A New Yorker born of Ashkenazi parents, Mark perceives himself as an American first, a Jew second; the faith of his ancestors will begin awakening in him as he travels through Israel in quest of the stolen gold of Chatalhoyuk. The stolen gold of Chatalhoyuk is the catalyst that brings Leyla, Mark and Anika together. In the background, is Burhan's (now the Turkish Minister of Interior and steering a dangerous course between extremist factions) personal struggle as his dark secret (his illegitimate son) is on the verge of being revealed to his wife, Ariadne.
eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, 2004
Filament eBookStore Release Date: March 2005

17 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [560 KB]
Words: 114065
Reading time: 325-456 min.
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"This focuses on the politics of Turkey, which are as wild and dirty as elsewhere, and conflicted love. It's interesting; she does about as good a job showing male sexual interest as any female writer does."--Piers Anthony

Prologue--August 12, Israel--mid 1980s

Deuteronomy (KJV): Chapter 32, Verse 41: "...If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me."

"Madame, Sir Colin Drake is on the phone, what shall I tell him this time?"

Startled, Anika ran the back of her hand across her brow and looked up, her eyes squinted against the sun. Bohar was standing above her, trying hard and not succeeding, to keep his hungry gaze from devouring her heavy-breasted, nude body. Biting her lower lip, she held back a warm smile. Wavy black hair and dark-brown eyed, Bohar was of average height, slim but muscular, and though satisfying as an occasional lover, he was simply indispensable as the best assistant she had ever employed.

She waved a dismissive hand. "Anything you want, Bohar. Just get him off my back for now."

Bohar turned around and left her side, his swift stride a clear sign of his disapproval.

Comfortably stretched out on the chaise-lounge on the balcony of her penthouse, long wavy black hair loose, bronze skin glistening with sun lotion, Anika wanted nothing to interfere with her savoring the moment. At the left of her horizon, outlined in blue, rose Jordan's Moabite mountains, at its right, the jagged hills of the Sinai, and in the middle, shone the Red Sea. Below the line of her vision, stretched Eilat's, an international playground on the Gulf of Aqaba, cafe and hedonist-crowded beach. But behind her, the world kept interfering in form of the ticking telex she had set up in her suite, manned by Bohar.