Here are 7 books that The Forger of Faces fans have personally recommended if you like The Forger of Faces. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Daindreth's Assassin

Sarah M. Awa Author Of Hunter's Moon

From Sarah's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Indie publisher Alleged vampire Neurodivergent Autoimmune warrior

Sarah's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Sarah M. Awa Why Sarah loves this book

The characters are great, and there is some good disability rep. I love how the love story unfolds and the badass heroine who nonetheless has a vulnerable side and thus is very human and relatable.

By Elisabeth Wheatley ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Daindreth's Assassin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Born to be a sorceress. Cursed to be an assassin. Chosen to be his empress.Magic has two immutable rules-every spell requires a sacrifice and every curse can be broken.Amira Brindonu is a sorceress turned assassin, bound in a curse that forces her to obey her father, even to the point of high treason. When he orders her to kill the future emperor, she fails, but discovers a secret that could bring the whole of the empire to its knees.The archduke is stricken by a curse that could sentence him and his people to damnation, but Amira could be the only…


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Book cover of The High House

The High House by James Stoddard,

The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.

The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.

Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…

Book cover of The Silent Prince

Sarah M. Awa Author Of Hunter's Moon

From Sarah's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Indie publisher Alleged vampire Neurodivergent Autoimmune warrior

Sarah's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Sarah M. Awa Why Sarah loves this book

It was so interesting to see the world of humans from the POV of someone who had only ever lived in the ocean. Not just "What's a fire and how does it burn?" kind of thing but so much more. (No spoilers!) And some of it was super funny! Just a really sweet story that made me swoon and root for their romance all the way!

By C. J. Brightley ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Silent Prince as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A voiceless prince. A desperate princess. A sham romance that turns heart-breakingly real.When cocky Mer prince Kaerius impulsively saves the human princess from drowning, he doesn’t expect to fall in love with her. Yet her human fragility is so unexpectedly sweet that he is soon head over tails. So he bargains his voice to the Lord of the Deep for a chance to court her on land. He's confident that he can win her affection--he's irresistible, after all.But he is a fish out of water in the human world. He didn’t expect it to be so difficult to make Marin…


Book cover of Crocodile on the Sandbank

Anne Louise Bannon Author Of Death of the Zanjero

From my list on mysteries for evoking a sense of place.

Why am I passionate about this?

Not a lot of guys would appreciate having their wives dump a stiff into the middle of a perfectly lovely lecture. My husband, the archivist, was a little nonplussed. But that’s what happens when you’re married to a mystery writer. And since I write historical mysteries, and the lecture was about the history of Los Angeles, that’s how The Old Los Angeles series happened. I also have the Freddie and Kathy series, set in the 1920s, and the Operation Quickline series, set in the 1980s. And being married to an archivist is not only a blast, it’s a big help.

Anne's book list on mysteries for evoking a sense of place

Anne Louise Bannon Why Anne loves this book

The story may evoke the rip-roaring thrillers of yore in terms of probability, but dang, from the first lines, I was hooked. There is nothing like seeing 19th-century Egypt through the eyes of Amelia Peabody.

I could practically hear the calls of the crowded streets of Cairo, feel the warmth of the desert sand and the spookiness of a night in a canyon. It was not intentional, I promise, but Miss Peabody’s voice may have had the tiniest bit of influence on a certain Victorian lady that I write about–and this book is why.

By Elizabeth Peters ,

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked Crocodile on the Sandbank as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Amelia Peabody is Elizabeth Peters' most brilliant and best-loved creation, a thoroughly Victorian feminist who takes the stuffy world of archaeology by storm with her shocking men's pants and no-nonsense attitude!

In this first adventure, our headstrong heroine decides to use her substantial inheritance to see the world. On her travels, she rescues a gentlewoman in distress - Evelyn Barton-Forbes - and the two become friends. The two companions continue to Egypt where they face mysteries, mummies and the redoubtable Radcliffe Emerson, an outspoken archaeologist, who doesn't need women to help him solve mysteries -- at least that's what he…


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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Book cover of Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt

Catherine Butzen Author Of Painter of the Dead

From my list on explaining why people think mummies are cursed.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been fascinated by ancient Egypt – a remote era of history, but so well preserved! I love reading the old documents and finding out what they ate or why the worker Tilamentu was absent from the building site one day. (Turns out he had a fight with his wife). Pop culture likes to focus on the mummies, especially the cursed kind, and I couldn’t help wondering why. Where did those ideas come from? Did the Egyptians actually believe in curses? And what would someone like Tilamentu Q. Public think of it all? I hope you enjoy learning about it as much as I did!

Catherine's book list on explaining why people think mummies are cursed

Catherine Butzen Why Catherine loves this book

When my father and I were getting ready to visit Egypt for the first time, he asked me for a book to introduce him to Egyptology. I gave him Red Land, Black Land. It brings you right into the distant yet familiar world of ancient Egypt: we see families fighting in letters, bored kids falling asleep in school, and scribes gloating over how amazing they are compared to everyone else. The past can seem so strange, but this book brings it to life.

By Barbara Mertz ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Red Land, Black Land as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A fascinating, erudite, and witty glimpse of the human side of ancient Egypt—this acclaimed classic work is now revised and updated for a new generation

Displaying the unparalleled descriptive power, unerring eye for fascinating detail, keen insight, and trenchant wit that have made the novels she writes (as Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels) perennial New York Times bestsellers, internationally renowned Egyptologist Barbara Mertz brings a long-buried civilization to vivid life. In Red Land, Black Land, she transports us back thousands of years and immerses us in the sights, aromas, and sounds of day-to-day living in the legendary desert realm that…


Book cover of Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt

Catherine Butzen Author Of Painter of the Dead

From my list on explaining why people think mummies are cursed.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been fascinated by ancient Egypt – a remote era of history, but so well preserved! I love reading the old documents and finding out what they ate or why the worker Tilamentu was absent from the building site one day. (Turns out he had a fight with his wife). Pop culture likes to focus on the mummies, especially the cursed kind, and I couldn’t help wondering why. Where did those ideas come from? Did the Egyptians actually believe in curses? And what would someone like Tilamentu Q. Public think of it all? I hope you enjoy learning about it as much as I did!

Catherine's book list on explaining why people think mummies are cursed

Catherine Butzen Why Catherine loves this book

Before Tut, there was Akhenaten. Fashionable nineteenth-century folks went gaga for this mysterious “heretic pharaoh” who tried to overthrow the gods of ancient Egypt. And because we know so little about him, everyone could make him anything they liked! As a fan of mythology, I found it incredible to watch how people evolved their own stories about this strange figure – seeing him as homosexual, heterosexual, Christian, pagan, and more. And it gives us a clue about the origin of the “curse” stories, as we see Akhenaten himself condemned by his own people and vanishing into history. 

By Dominic Montserrat ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Akhenaten as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The pharaoh Akhenaten, who ruled Egypt in the mid-fourteenth century BCE, has been the subject of more speculation than any other character in Egyptian history. Often called the originator of monotheism and the world's first recorded individual, he has fascinated and inspired both scholars of Egyptology and creative talents as diverse as Sigmund Freud and Philip Glass.
This provocative biography examines both the real Akhenaten and the myths that have been created around him. It scrutinises the history of the pharaoh and his reign, which has been continually written in Eurocentric terms inapplicable to ancient Egypt, and the archaeology of…


Book cover of The Mummy's Curse: The True History of a Dark Fantasy

Catherine Butzen Author Of Painter of the Dead

From my list on explaining why people think mummies are cursed.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been fascinated by ancient Egypt – a remote era of history, but so well preserved! I love reading the old documents and finding out what they ate or why the worker Tilamentu was absent from the building site one day. (Turns out he had a fight with his wife). Pop culture likes to focus on the mummies, especially the cursed kind, and I couldn’t help wondering why. Where did those ideas come from? Did the Egyptians actually believe in curses? And what would someone like Tilamentu Q. Public think of it all? I hope you enjoy learning about it as much as I did!

Catherine's book list on explaining why people think mummies are cursed

Catherine Butzen Why Catherine loves this book

The Victorians loved mummies and mummy stories... and before I read The Mummy’s Curse, I’d never heard of any of them! The nineteenth century’s obsession with Egypt and curses doesn’t get talked about much today. This book opened me up to a whole new world of stories, including some strange curse tales that never got quite as big as King Tut. (Which is a shame, because some of them are wonderfully creepy!)

By Roger Luckhurst ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Mummy's Curse as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the winter of 1922-23 archaeologist Howard Carter and his wealthy patron George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, sensationally opened the tomb of Tutenkhamen. Six weeks later Herbert, the sponsor of the expedition, died in Egypt. The popular press went wild with rumours of a curse on those who disturbed the Pharaoh's rest and for years followed every twist and turn of the fate of the men who had been involved in the historic discovery. Long dismissed by
Egyptologists, the mummy's curse remains a part of popular supernatural belief. Roger Luckhurst explores why the myth has captured the British…


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Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of An Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Papyrus of Sobekmose

Catherine Butzen Author Of Painter of the Dead

From my list on explaining why people think mummies are cursed.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been fascinated by ancient Egypt – a remote era of history, but so well preserved! I love reading the old documents and finding out what they ate or why the worker Tilamentu was absent from the building site one day. (Turns out he had a fight with his wife). Pop culture likes to focus on the mummies, especially the cursed kind, and I couldn’t help wondering why. Where did those ideas come from? Did the Egyptians actually believe in curses? And what would someone like Tilamentu Q. Public think of it all? I hope you enjoy learning about it as much as I did!

Catherine's book list on explaining why people think mummies are cursed

Catherine Butzen Why Catherine loves this book

I remember being a kid in a museum, staring at the figurines making up a strange judgment scene. Gods weighing a man’s heart against a feather – what was that all about? If you want to understand the ancient Egyptians, you need a good Book of the Dead. This translation of the goldsmith Sobekmose’s burial copy won’t bring any cursed mummies back to life, but it gives you a road map to ancient Egyptian paradise... and some neat spells to control demons, if they happen to turn up along the way. 

By Paul F. O' Rourke ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked An Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Book of the Dead of Sobekmose, in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, New York, is one of the most important surviving examples of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead genre. Such `books' - papyrus scrolls - were composed of traditional funerary texts, including magic spells, that were thought to assist a dead person on their journey into the afterlife. The ancient Egyptians believed in an underworld fraught with dangers that needed to be carefully navigated, from the familiar, such as snakes and scorpions, to the extraordinary: lakes of fire to cross, animal-headed demons to pass and, of…


Book cover of Daindreth's Assassin
Book cover of The Silent Prince
Book cover of Crocodile on the Sandbank

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