Six for Gold - Hardcover

Reed, Mary; Mayer, Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590581458 ISBN 13: 9781590581452

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Pr, 2005

Synopsis

Why are sheep in the remote Egyptian village of Mehenopolis cutting their own throats? That's the mystery Emperor Justinian inexplicably sends John, his Lord Chamberlain, to Egypt to solve. Mehenopolis is a pilgrim destination, thanks to its ancient shrine to a snake deity.

Among the 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 beekeeper, and a disgraced charioteer. Will John uncover what is really happening to these sheep? Are these slayings somehow linked to the murder charge of which John has frantically tried to clear himself?

About this title

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 published several short stories about John, Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, in mystery anthologies and in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine prior to 1999's highly acclaimed first full length novel, One for Sorrow. Entries in the series have been honored by a Best Mystery Glyph Award, an honorable mention in the Glyph Best Book category, and was a finalist for the IPPY Best Mystery Award (Two For Joy), nominations for the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award (Four For A Boy and Five For Silver), and a Glyph Award for Best Book Series (Five For Silver). The American Library Association's Booklist Magazine named the Lord Chamberlain novels one of its four Best Little Known Series. Mary Reed & Eric Mayer also write under Eric Reed.

Edition details

• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Pr
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1590581458
• ISBN 13: 9781590581452
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 267