You may think you know vampires, and you may think you know Cleopatra, but in Maria Headley's inventive and sweeping historical fantasy, Queen of Kings (Dutton, May), the rulers of ancient Egypt and Rome grapple with bloodlust, magic, and betrayal in ways you'd never expect. Mark Antony commits suicide after the Battle of Actium, convinced that Cleopatra has betrayed him. In her grief, Cleopatra attempts a magical summoning that goes terribly wrong. She is possessed by the bloodthirsty Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of wrath. As Cleopatra begins to understand what has happened to her, she wrestles with her unnatural hunger and the anguish of losing her family. Meanwhile, Rome is being pulled apart as Octavian struggles to rule against the will of its senators. His personal history with Cleopatra pits the two against each other, even as Cleopatra attempts to join her husband in the Egyptian underworld. Readers of Guy Gavriel Kay will love the rich storytelling, laden with historical detail.