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"Fascinating often humorous speculative fiction"

A scientific breakthrough by the Helix Corporation allows the DNA of one person to be implanted in the body of another person; thereby two minds share the same body. Forensic anthropologist Leda Hubbard and Egyptologist Gabriella Forout share their bodies with the mind of Cleopatra. Once they find her final resting place, they transfer the sarcophagus, amulets, jewels and scrolls to the museum. Not long after Helix downsizes Leda due to a change in management.

Gabrielle belongs to an organization that hides abused women from their families. When a Saudi Princess changes her mind and wants to go home she tells her family everything about the group. Her family tries to kill Gabrielle and her aunt. Two time crook Mike Angeles breaks into the museum where Gabrielle works and finds the locket with Marc Anthony's hair. Cleopatra 7.2 tricks him into accepting Marc Anthony's DNA so the lovers can be reunited in the present. When Mike and Gabrielle get kidnapped by the family of the Saudi Princess, Leda senses it and rushes to Egypt with Sir Andrew, he future employer and possible suitor who has the DNA of Sir Walter Scott inside his body. Andrew wants Leda so he helps her rescue her friend but he has a secret that once revealed could cost him Leda's love.

CLEOPATRA 7.2 is a science fiction thriller that feels like a futuristic James Bond. In addition to all the other problems the protagonists face, terrorists set a bomb that could kill the heroes. The romance between the lead couple is realistically portrayed and the idea of two minds inhabiting one body in which the person is not mentally ill or Steve Martin is a fascinating premise. The way they blend together and respect each other's personality makes Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's latest work a fascinating often humorous speculative fiction.

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 28, 2004

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted January 25, 2007

Now then, after Channeling Cleopatra, what does one do for an encore? Well, obviously, repeat the first act with variations. This time Leda Hubbard, the middle aged American Egyptologist isn't the one incorporating the queen into her own life. This time it is her younger Egyptian counterpart, an undercover activist who helps Middle Eastern women at risk because of the abuse by their male relatives of the power they wield in the paternalistic family. Gabriella helps remove these ladies before they are murdered by their families for some real or imagined slight on the male honor. She feels very strongly about this for more than intellectual reasons. As a young girl, she was forced to undergo the most extreme sort of "female circumcision." Joining Gabriella in her body, the very sexual Cleopatra is appalled by this and quite willing to help Gabriella with her goals, once she's achieved a few of her own. In the meantime, her own memories of her personally satisfying and active, if politically tragic, love life help convince Gabriella that there are men who are worth more than whatever trouble they may be.