Death on Delos

Greece, 545 BC: The sacred isle of Delos was the birthplace of the divine twins Apollo and Artemis, and has been a most holy pilgrimage site for centuries. But now it also serves a more secular function—it is the home of the treasury of the Delian League, the defensive union of Greek city-states who have come together in wake of the Persian Wars. The treasury is a vast fund, and it is protected only by the priests and priestesses of the tiny isle and a scant armed guard.

Now Pericles, the charismatic Athenian statesman, has sent his agent Nico to Delos on a dangerous (and possibly illegal) mission: to claim the treasury and bring it back to Athens, where Pericles thinks it will be safer. Nico travels with his heavily pregnant wife and partner in sleuthing, the priestess Diotima, who has been selected to give this year’s annual offering to Artemis. Expecting righteous resistance, Pericles has also tasked Nico with bribing priests who try to prevent the treasury from being moved. But before he can get very far with this dubiously unholy task, Nico ends up with a murder on his hands.

It is a crime against the gods to die or be born on the sacred island. Thanks to the violence over the treasury, the first blasphemy has already been committed. Can Nico solve the murder and get Diotima off the island before they accidentally commit the second?

Gary Corby lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and two daughters. He blogs at A Dead Man Fell from the Sky, on all things ancient, Athenian, and mysterious. He is the author of six other critically acclaimed Athenian mysteries: The Pericles Commission, The Ionia Sanction, Sacred Games, The Marathon Conspiracy, Death Ex Machina, and The Singer from Memphis.