Nefertiti by Joyce Tyldesley (Penguin, £7.99 in UK)

The arresting sculptured and painted head (actually, there are several surviving portraits) of this obviously beautiful Queen of Egypt no doubt has a great deal to do with the perennial fascination she seems to exert. Married to the youthful Aknaten, the so-called "heretic king," she presided over a brilliant court at Amarna, and bore her husband six daughters before suddenly vanishing from history. Why? Probing the records and archaeological evidence, Joyce Tyldesley suggests that it was Nefertiti's failure to produce a son which brought her disgrace and downfall. It all seems rather hypothetical, though the historical quest for an answer has real inherent interest.