The Gardener and the Assassin: The Murder of Ramesses III

Set between 1159 and 1143 BC, as Egypt’s New Kingdom was beginning to decline, The Gardener and the Assassin recounts events in the years before and after the murder of Pharaoh Ramesses III by his wife and son. Events include tomb robbery, the world’s first workers’ strike by the craftsmen who excavated tombs for pharaohs in the Great Place and for their wives and children in the Place of Beauty, the rise of the Amen priesthood, and the trial of more than thirty individuals from Pharaoh’s harem and army and household who were involved in his assassination. The story is told through the eyes of Neset, overseer of the third Ramesses’ gardens; Pentawere, son of the third Ramesses; and Kairy, chariot driver for the fourth Ramesses.