Changes

|title=The Sultan's Wife

|sort=Sultan's Wife

|publisher=Viking

|date=May 2012

|website=http://www.janejohnsonbooks.com/

|summary=A novel of intrigue and adventure that teaches as it enchants, sweeping across Charles II's Restoration London and despotic, dangerous 17th century Morocco. It also involves a romance but there's so much else to attract the attention that even the most heart-hardened history buff will find something in it to appeal.

}}

Alys Swann is leaving her native Holland to accomplish the marriage her mother arranged for her in London. Alys's parents are English but fled to Holland when her late father discovered he was on the wrong side during the English Civil War. The trip turns out to be more adventurous than Alys would like as she's kidnapped by pirates and delivered to Moroccan potentate Sultan Moulay Ismail who's a little mentally unstable (and that's an understatement). His plan for her is as a welcome addition to his globally sourced harem. There she meets Nus-Nus, eunuch and the Sultan's scribe, who has problems of his own. A local apothecary dies in a most unnatural way and Nus-Nus seems to be the only suspect. The royal court has always been a dangerous place but, for Nus-Nus, and indeed Alys, staying alive has suddenly become more of a challenge than it seemed before... and that's saying something.