The Marathon Conspiracy
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Set in classical Athens, this “fast-paced, enjoyable, murder mystery . . . will make readers laugh and think in equal measure” (The Sydney Morning Herald).
Nicolaos, ancient Athens’s favorite sleuth, and his partner in investigation, the clever priestess Diotima, have taken time off to come home and get married. But hoping to get hitched without a hitch proves overly optimistic: A skull discovered in a cave near the Sanctuary of Artemis, the ancient world’s most famous school for girls, is revealed to be the remains of the Hippias, the reviled last tyrant to rule Athens.
The Athenians fought the Battle of Marathon to keep this man out of power; he was supposed to have died thirty years ago, in faraway Persia. What are his remains doing outside the city walls? Nico’s boss, the great Athenian statesman Pericles, wants answers, and he orders Nico to find them. Worst of all, one of the two Sanctuary students who discovered the skull has been killed, and the other is missing. Can the sleuths solve the interlocked crimes before their wedding?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The future of democracy itself is on the line in Corby's outstanding fourth historical set in ancient Greece (after 2013's Sacred Games). On the eve of elections in Athens, the city's wise man, Pericles, enlists his inquiry agent, Nicolaos, to deal with a matter that could undermine the elections. In a cave outside Athens, two schoolgirls have discovered a skeleton that may belong to the tyrant Hippias, who defected to the Persians after his ouster, a move that led to the Battle of Marathon. With the remains are notes, apparently written by the dictator, which may identify still-living traitors who worked with him even after his defection. One of the schoolgirls was killed shortly afterward, and the other has vanished. The multiple puzzles prove a formidable challenge for Nicolaos and his feisty fianc e, Diotima. Everything works in this installment the detective business, the action sequences, the plot twists, and the further development of the series lead.
