Shenanigans in Ancient Egypt

A little bit of "Friends", a little bit of "Scrubs", a little bit of Indiana Jones, a tiny-tiny whiff of Robert Graves, all wound around a humorous view of historic figures.  Take a trip into Ptolemaic Egypt where men do the grunt work and women call the shots.  Cleopatra is "a" character, but she's only 15 and 16 (depending on book): none of that breathless Caesar and Marc Antony bodice bursting ... that doesn't happen for another 6 years ... and there's a lot happening outside the bounds of royal palaces.  

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Tired of puffed up elitist actors promenading around and speaking like Shakespeare?  You won't find that here.  Imagine YOU were wearing a Greek tunic, Egyptian kilt, or sheath dress and were just trying to get by.

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Despite Cleopatra being a teenager, these aren't for the kiddies.  Adult humor and situations, nothing explicit.

I enjoyed this book so much that I read it straight through over the weekend. It's got a little bit of everything, politics, humor, intrigue, an expedition up the Nile, and even manages a touch of erotica without getting dirty. While the ending is perfectly satisfactory, I thought I caught a hint in the end notes that there may be another book sometimes in the distant future, so I can always hope.

I loved all of the linguistic humor and cultural misunderstandings, and the way the author made the lives of scribes and temple priestesses come alive by concentrating on the interesting possibilities of their professions rather than on modern sensibilities.

I wish I was a better review writer but I'm always afraid of giving away too much so I'll leave it at that.