Fans of Antonia Fraser and Margaret George will love this witty, intelligent page-turner from Judith Merkle Riley. The year is 1556 and the setting is Paris--capital city to a country on the brink of civil war. Catherine de Medici is queen, and her astrologer, the prophet Nostradamus, has divined the secret evil of the Undying Head of Menander, the Master of All Desires. The Queen wants to use Menander to get rid of the king's mistress, and a spirited young poet named Sibille Artaud de la Roque is tempted by Menander to obtain all her desires. But only Nostradamus knows that evil befalls all who wish upon this accursed object. Can he stop these determined women before they unwittingly destroy the entire kingdom of France?