The Empress Holds The Key takes the reader on an exciting journey of discovery where the stakes are high, the rewards great, but where the price of failure is oblivion. It is a quest for the ultimate prize in archaeology - a holy relic that has mysteriously disappeared from the pages of history.The story begins in the ruins of a cottage destroyed by bushfire in the Blue Mountains in Australia, visits many countries, and explores intriguing chapters of the past. These include the reign of Akhenaten - the heretic king of ancient Egypt, the time of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, the terror of the Inquisition, the fall of the Knights Templar and the death camps of war ravaged Europe.Locations, such as exclusive London auction houses, the monuments of Egypt, a forgotten mass grave in Austria, the notorious tango clubs of Buenos Aires and a remote village in Papua New Guinea, add colour to the journey, which reaches its dramatic conclusion at the hidden tomb of a legendary African king in the highlands of Ethiopia. The Empress Holds The Key weaves fact and fiction into an adventure of epic proportions as it follows the lives of a handful of diverse individuals tied together by destiny and fate. Marcus Carrington QC, criminal barrister and amateur archaeologist, finds his life abruptly altered when he meets Jana Gonski, an Australian Federal Police Officer on the trail of a suspected Nazi war criminal.When Carrington's wife and daughter are killed by terrorists in Egypt, he is irresistibly drawn into the quest. With the help of journalist Jack Rogan, they unravel an intricate web of intrigue and greed spanning more than half a century. Secret hoards of Nazi gold and Swiss bank accounts belonging to holocaust victims implicate Sir Eric Newman, who is accused of war crimes and sent to trial. His daughter, Dr Rosen, a famous healer and philanthropist, comes to terms with her father's Nazi past and joins the quest.