Pasiphae: an incredible feminist retelling of a woman wronged by myth

by Jane Dougherty

'A vivid and beautifully written retelling' Eirinie Lapidaki
'A wonder of a novel' Kate Potter
'Beautifully and imaginatively written. A real page-turner' Jessica Mills
'Unputdownable retelling of the Minotaur myth' Fran Hill

A queen. A mother. A monster. A throne built on blood.

Princess Pasiphae of Kolchis is sent to Knossos to secure the throne, but she soon finds herself entangled in a brutal power struggle. As the Mother cult demands blood and Minos seeks to overturn ancient rule, she fights to protect her children; Asterion, her gentle son marked as a monster, and Ariadne, the ambitious daughter who rejects her.

Betrayals, sacrifices, and shifting allegiances shape the kingdom’s fate. When Theseus arrives to claim his prize, Knossos falls, leaving Pasiphae to face the ghosts of all she has lost.

362 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 12, 2026

About the author

Jane Dougherty is a product of the Irish diaspora. She was brought up in Yorkshire and educated in Manchester and London before moving to France to work in the wine trade. She spent fourteen years in Paris where she married and had four children, studied Irish for a year and taught herself Italian. Next move was to Laon in Picardy, a medieval gem of a town set in beautiful countryside, where her fifth child was born. She now lives in Bordeaux with her family, a Spanish greyhound and a posse of cats.