Cleopatra's Vendetta - Stryker #1 Paperback

From Avanti Centrae, author of the international bestselling VanOps thriller series, comes a new multi-award-winning standalone action thriller. It’s a fast-paced bombshell of a story about royal secrets and epic lies.

Born a goddess, Cleopatra died a prisoner. But the cobra's deadly kiss was just the beginning...

Gold Medal Winner — Conspiracy Thrillers, Readers' Favorite
First Place Winner — Global Thrillers, Chanticleer International Book Awards
Runner Up — Paris Book Festival

Bari, Italy, present day. Think tank Special Ops leader Timothy Stryker and his wife Angie, a self-made CEO, haven’t exactly been seeing eye-to-eye. They take a much-needed Italian holiday, but it comes to a shocking end when Angie and their four-year-old daughter are kidnapped.

Still raw from the death of their infant son, Stryker is desperate to rescue Angie and reconcile their differences. As he works to locate the captors’ lair, he discovers the key to the kidnapper’s location may be secreted away in Queen Cleopatra’s hidden gold journal. But when he learns their plans for his only remaining child, the scab on his heart tears open and blood begins to spill.

Working from inside her brutal captors’ high-security compound, Angie realizes the cabal is hiding an ancient secret using modern propaganda techniques. And as Stryker connects a series of deadly dots while searching Egyptian tombs and Greek temples to find his family, hitmen track his every move. Ultimately, the estranged pair must shake the deeply buried pillars of western civilization to save their daughter from an unspeakable fate.


Fascinating, provocative, original, and timely, Cleopatra's Vendetta is a sizzling novel that will keep you turning pages long into the night.

“Action, adventure, and suspense! A juicy thriller.” —Robert Dugoni, New York Times & International bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite Series

"Fascinating." —Katherine Neville, New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Internationally bestselling author

"An adventure that will appeal to fans of Dan Brown. It's one of those rare birds: a thriller that will have you turning the pages and leave you thinking." —Debbi Mack, New York Times bestselling author of the Sam McRae and Erica Jensen mysteries

“Race-against-time, action-packed adventure. This is a thriller that will captivate its audience from the first page.” —Manhattan Book Review

“If you like your modern global threats to have a dash of ancient mystery and mysticism, you’re going to find yourself with some sleepless nights while reading Cleopatra’s Vendetta.” —Kevin Tumlinson, bestselling and award-winning author of The Coelho Medallion

"Dangerous and intoxicating." —Audrey Wilson, screenwriter, producer, and award-winning author of Wrong Girl Gone

"Through cliff-hangers and twisty turns, readers will be propelled to an explosive ending — both literally and psychologically." —Chico Enterprise Record