A LETTER.
A DISAPPEARNCE.
A PAST THAT REFUSES TO STAY BURIED.
“Hulen’s complex mystery offers multiple twists and turns. An imaginative and engaging Mexico-set thriller.” —Kirkus Reviews
Winner of the Claymore Award
The Story Begins Here
What if the opportunity to rewrite history was standing right in front of you?
In 2181 BC, Khara, daughter of Pharaoh Pepy II, stands on the brink of becoming Egypt’s first woman pharaoh—until betrayal shatters her world. Her coronation day ends in bloodshed, forcing her into exile through time itself. Cast into the vast deserts between the U.S. and Mexico, Khara believes she’s fallen into the Underworld—until she meets Victoria Barron, a modern-day attorney with a guarded heart and an unflagging sense of purpose.
Their quest takes them through cursed lands, forgotten legends, and the shadowy edges of history—testing the strength of friendship, the weight of destiny, and the cost of sacrifice. As an opens a portal back to Khara’s time, the question lingers:
Can the past be saved without losing the future?
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S.L. Hulen
The S. is for Sylvia.
Growing up in El Paso, a city where history, myth, and cultural intrigue blur into everyday life, shaped me early—its desert light, its layered past, its whispers of stories beneath the surface…
Unearthed
Why is repatriation of lost and stolen artifacts considered charity?
On January 7, 2026, news broke that the United States repatriated seven ancient Egyptian objects that had been seized years earlier by U.S. authorities. The list wasn’t flashy in the way blockbuster museum icons are, but it mattered: pieces like a mummified fish and a...
The Cautionary Legacy of Aleš Hrdlička.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons In the early twentieth century, few figures loomed larger over American anthropology than Aleš Hrdlička. (I admit, I’m still working on the pronunciation). As curator of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution,...