Six for Gold - Softcover

Book 6 of 12: John the Lord Chamberlain

Reed, Mary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1458739112 ISBN 13: 9781458739117

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant, 2013

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Why are sheep in a remote Egyptian village cutting their own throats? That's the mystery Emperor Justinian inexplicably sends his Lord Chamberlain John the Eunuch to Egypt to solve. Is it because John desperately needs to clear himself of accusations he murdered a senator in the Hippodrome? Mehenopolis is a pilgrim destination thanks to its ancient shrine to a snake deity as well as the home of the late sheep. It is nearly as byzantine in its ways and undercurrents as Constantinople. Among the suspicious characters John encounters are a pretentious local landowner battling a self-styled magician for control of the lucrative shrine, an exiled heretical cleric, an itinerant bee-keeper, and a disgraced charioteer. Meanwhile, back in Constantinople, John's good friend Anatolius does his best to trace the senator's murderer and clear John. At stake are not only John's honor - and his head - but also the family with whom he recently reunited, a family now in danger of being broken apart. Or worse.

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Review

Mary Reed and Eric Mayer are the most reliable hit-producing machine since The Everly Brothers. Their latest John caper, Six For Gold, is as
aureate as its title. In this outing, our hero is sent to the always mysteriously dangerous land of Egypt, ostensibly to probe at imperial orders reported cases of suicidal sheep - an inspired touch, this. While John, with wife and servant, encounter sundry bizarre local personalities and customs, back
in Constantinople his friends and enemies are kept busy with intrigues and murders, creating an effective double narrative. Though their scenes
are few, we feel the sinister presence of Justinian and Theodora looming over every move. The dungeon encounter between John and the malevolent empress is one of the most genuinely blood-curdling chapters I have read in years. As always, there are many rib-ticking jokes (I may have to sue the authors for permanent damage to said body parts), and the mastery of Byzantine 'Realia' is as impressive as ever. I iterate my standard complaint about this series: why cannot Reed-Mayer bring out one a month? Still, while Sue Grafton must presumably pension off Kinsey after
26, unless she switches to the Greek alphabet, the One-For, Two-For sequence is happily infinite.
-- Barry Baldwin, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Calgary.

About the Author

The husband and wife team of Mary Reed and Eric Mayer had published several short John the Eunuch detections in mystery anthologies and in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine prior to 1999's highly acclaimed first full length novel, One for Sorrow. Two for Joy is their second full-length John the Eunuch mystery

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