Beneath the Pyramid

Name: Beneath the Pyramid
Rating: 4.7 (14 reviews)

by Christian Jacq Book 1 in the The Judge of Egypt series.

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4.2(14)

Pazair, a young and incorruptible judge, is called from a provincial post to investigate the mysterious deaths of guards near the monuments of Giza. His refusal to accept a convenient explanation draws him into corruption that reaches the highest levels of Ramesside Egypt. The novel begins the trilogy by making legal procedure and moral independence the route into a conspiracy against the pharaoh.

Pazair's insistence on procedure makes him dangerous to people who expect rank to override evidence. The deaths at Giza draw him from an apparently local case toward networks of officials, priests and administrators whose interests depend on silence. The novel uses the machinery of justice to explore how corruption threatens Ma'at, the Egyptian ideal of lawful and cosmic order, from inside the state itself.