The Cleopatra Code
Based on a true story, The Cleopatra Code weaves together the lives of two extraordinary women separated by two thousand years: Winifred Lamb, one of the few female codebreakers of WWI, and Phaena, Cleopatra’s brilliant but forgotten sister, whose ancient veterinary treatises were thought lost forever. When this ancient wisdom becomes the key to modern warfare, their stories collide in ways neither could have ever imagined.
Cambridge, 1917
When British Intelligence recruits archaeologist Winifred “Winnie” Lamb to crack an unbreakable German cipher, they don’t tell her that her life’s work has just become a weapon of war. Her groundbreaking research on Phaena, Cleopatra’s forgotten sister, gathers dust until British Intelligence recruits her for Room 40, their top-secret code breaking unit. The Germans are using an unbreakable cipher based on ancient Ptolemaic texts, and Winnie’s expertise in ancient languages makes her the only person who might crack it. As she races to decode messages that could save thousands of lives, she discovers a shocking connection: the enemy’s deadly code is built on Phaena’s ancient veterinary treatises, the very texts Winnie spent years studying. But someone inside Room 40 wants her dead before she can expose the truth, and the spy could be anyone, including Cedric Rothwell, the charming Egyptologist working by her side.
Alexandria, 40 BCE
While her sister Cleopatra forges a strategic alliance with Julius Caesar to save her throne, Phaena pursues her own path in the Great Library, pioneering veterinary medicine. Brilliant and independent, she must navigate the treacherous waters of Ptolemaic politics while torn between duty to her powerful sister and her love for Leonidas, a simple horse trainer. As ambitions collide and the Great Library burns, the world’s scientific knowledge is nearly lost. Determined to see her own work survive, Phaena commits her vast knowledge to writing. Two thousand years later, this decision may be Winnie Lamb’s only hope.
