Mary Reed & Eric Mayer Six for Gold

Six for Gold

Mary Reed & Eric Mayer

Poisoned pen, Nov 2005, $24.95, 274 pp.

ISBN: 1590581458

In Constantinople, the Lord Chamberlain John the Eunuch is arrested for the murder of Senator Symacchus in the Hippodrome. The Empress Theodora demands justice, which means an eye for an eye or perhaps a tongue. Instead Emperor Justinian gives John a chance to buy some time to have his innocence proven. He exiles John to Egypt to learn why sheep are committing suicide on a settlement up river from Alexandria while the eunuch's best friend Anatolius investigates the senatorial murder.

John boards the Minotaur only to find his wife Cornelius and his elderly servant Peter waiting to go with him. John and his entourage reach their destination, the city of Mehenopolis, home of a sacred ancient shrine to the snake deity. The city turns out to be more Byzantium than Constantinople is as it hosts many visitors to the shrine and residents who want to make their fortune from the foolish outside believers. Anyone of them could be the cause of why the sheep are slashing their throats.

SIX FOR GOLD is a fabulous historical mystery that showcases an era when Christianity and paganism battle for supremacy. The vivid story line brings to life an area of Egypt rarely if ever used in novels so that the audience obtains an even greater taste of the true first "world war" fought over religious principles. John is a terrific protagonist struggling to solve the case of the suicidal sheep even as he ponders what will happen to him and his family once he returns home because the investigation he left behind will turn into a cold case by the time he comes home. Mary Reed & Eric Mayer once again make the John the Eunuch mysteries one of the best historical tales on the market today.

Harriet Klausner