- Paperback: 259 pages
- Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (Mar 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1590582683
- ISBN-13: 978-1590582688
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 13.6 x 1.7 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,283,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Five for Silver
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Product Description
Product Description
The year is 542. Peter, John the Lord Chamberlain's elderly servant, claims a heavenly visitor revealed a murder to him. It transpires that Peter's old army friend has indeed been stabbed, but then John discovers that Gregory was not what he appeared to be. Is the solution to the mystery to be found in a hidden identity, in the will made by a dying ship owner with a wayward son, or perhaps even amid the oracles in a merchant's garden? John's quest leads him to churchmen and whores, lawyers and bear trainers. Suspects include and bear trainers. Suspects include a dealer in dubious antiquities, a resourceful bookseller, a court poet fixated on bereavement, and a holy fool who outrages the city by dancing with the dead and invading the empress' private bath. Only a man of unbending principle could hope to find justice in a terrified city where the good and the bad are struck down indiscriminately, where disorder rules, and where witnesses may die before they can be questioned. A city, in short, where death is the murderer's accomplice.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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
--This text refers to an alternate
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First Sentence
"John, Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, followed the physician Gaius through the crowded corridors of Samsun's Hospice." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
"John, Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, followed the physician Gaius through the crowded corridors of Samsun's Hospice." Read the first page
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2 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Five for Silver a Must Read!
21 July 2004
Format:Paperback
The year is 542. Peter, John the Lord Chamberlain's elderly servant, claims a heavenly visitor revealed a murder to him. It transpires that Peter's old army friend has indeed been stabbed, but then John discovers that Gregory was not what he appeared to be. Is the solution to the mystery to be found in a hidden identity, in the will made by a dying ship owner with a wayward
son, or perhaps even amid the oracles in a merchant's garden.
Five for Silver is set in Constantinope against the backdrop of the plague. It is an extemely well written mystery with loads of terrific historical detail and well developed characters you come to care about. The details on the plague will give you the chills just imagining what it must have been like to live thru it. An elaborately plotted mystery that will leave you guessing, speculating and trying to solve it until the very end. Just when
you think you have finally figured it out....you haven't! A must read mystery that will send you scrambling for the first four in this dynamite series.
son, or perhaps even amid the oracles in a merchant's garden.
Five for Silver is set in Constantinope against the backdrop of the plague. It is an extemely well written mystery with loads of terrific historical detail and well developed characters you come to care about. The details on the plague will give you the chills just imagining what it must have been like to live thru it. An elaborately plotted mystery that will leave you guessing, speculating and trying to solve it until the very end. Just when
you think you have finally figured it out....you haven't! A must read mystery that will send you scrambling for the first four in this dynamite series.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Great sense of place in fine historical mystery series
1 July 2004
Format:Paperback
A plague is ripping through Constantinople during the reign of Justinian at the very beginning of the Byzantine Empire. So many people are dying that the Emperor has commissioned ships to be filled with bodies, towed to the harbor, and set ablaze. With so many dead, one more wouldn't seem to be a big deal. But John the Eunuch, Lord Chamberland to the Emperor, feels compelled to search for the killer of one man--a longtime friend and former soldier comrad of Peter, John's cook. According to Peter, an angel came, demanding vengence. While John follows Mithra rather than Christianity, he owes his faithful servant the investigation.
In a city being emptied by plague and people fleeing the plague, it's hard to find witnesses but John establishes a possible connection. Gregory, the dead man, had recently witnessed a will. When other witnesses also turn up dead, it seems that John is onto something--but what.
Authors Mary Reed and John Mayer do a wonderful job depicting what was then the greatest and most powerful city in the world. The holy fool, the aspiring poets, the politically savvy and dangerous Empress Theodora, and especially John the Eunuch and his family really come to life.
Reed and Mayer use the mosaic metaphor several times in their book and, in fact, present a bit of a mosaic of Constantinople. Not all of the crimes that John uncovers are connected to one another, but they are connected to the extended family that John has built in the new Rome. FIVE FOR SILVER is therefore a very personal story.
John the Eunuch is one of the most entertaining of the historical mystery series being written today. If you haven't discovered it yet, you're in for a treat.
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