Product Description

The second in the critically acclaimed Alexander the Great Mystery series, A Murder in Thebes has it's roots in the blood-soaked intrigue that swirled beneath Alexander's triumphs and shattered conquests.

Thebes has fallen under Alexander the Great's power, but the days following are filled with murderous treason. Lysander and Mamnon, Alexander's two favorite officers, have been killed by a dangerous spy, and Alexander's rule is precarious until he solves the riddle of Oedipus's crown.

Protected by the shrine dedicated to the legendary Oedipus, the crown can only be handed over to one pure in heart and innocent of any crime against his own parents. Alexander is determined to seize the crown, not only as a vindication of his divine status, but also as an answer to the malicious rumors that he had a hand in his own father's murder. But the crown is not easily had, watched over by a priestess and surrounded by poisonous snakes and a glowing bed of charcoal.

Alexander relies for help on his two Israelite friends, Miriam and Simeon Bartmaeus. They are faced with the inescapable legend that Oedipus killed his father, married his own mother, and became King of Thebes. Now for Alexander to assume power they must learn who betrayed Lysander the Thebes and how did Mamnon, guarded and protected in his own locked chamber, fall to his death? Who is killing Macedonian sentries in the dead of night? Is it true that the specter of Oedipus has returned to Thebes to exact vengeance to Macedon?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1900091 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 226 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The pseudonymous Apostolou weighs in with the second book (after A Murder in Macedon, 1997) in her series featuring the brother-and-sister sleuthing team of Miriam and Simeon Bartimaeus, two Israelite friends of Alexander the Great. It seems that while Alexander's army may have decimated Thebes, the Thebans might have the last word. While awaiting Alexander's arrival, his victorious troops are told that their sovereign's party has perished in an ambush?false information that must have been planted by one of Alexander's own officers. When Alexander arrives in Thebes and learns that two of his favorite officers have been killed, the hunt for the spy/murderer is just the beginning of the troubles for him and the Bartimaeus siblings (whom Alexander has known since his days of learning at the feet of Aristotle). Miriam and Simeon also have to figure out how to get the crown of Oedipus into their chief's hands, guarded as it is by priestesses, fire and snakes. As Macedonian soldiers continue to die, especially those guarding Oedipus's temple, their task becomes more urgent. Some wonder if the ghost of the Theban king is avenging his people, but the ever logical Miriam believes in a less fanciful explanation for all the hauntings, riddles and conundrums. Apostolou's plot is complex to a fault, and she offers so much information about the times that very little of it comes to life or lodges in the reader's imagination. Alexander's greatness never materializes on the page, and Miriam, while she may have been one of Aristotle's star pupils, seems capable only of deductions that strain credibility.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Has Alexander of Macedon been killed with his army in Thessaly even before he can become Alexander the Great? No, he's alive and in fighting trim. But the rumors of his defeat and death are so threatening to his dreams of unifying Greece against the growing Persian enemy that it's doubly important his siege of Thebes be successful. Even when the city of the fabled King Oedipus obligingly falls to the conqueror, Alexanders scorched-earth victory is poisoned by his failure to secure the Iron Crown of Oedipus, a relic jealously guarded by the keepers of a local shrine, and by the death of his trusted officer Memnon, who unaccountably plunged to his death from a tower window dressed in full battle gear. It's murder, of course, and only the first of several acts in a bloody chapter that will feature the limping ghost of Thebes' most famous citizen, provide endless grist for Alexander's twin Israelite clerks Miriam and Simeon Bartimaeus (A Murder in Macedon, 1997), and have even the most tenderhearted readers forgetting about the burning of Thebes. The only downside for non-Theban partisans is that the homicidal toll grows so great (to an even dozen, by our count) that there's not much room for incidents that don't involve the discovery of more corpses. Pseudonymous Apostolou provides painless historical sidelights while her heroine continues to make up in detective acumen what she lacks in personality. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Miriam once again stared at the ruins of Thebes and repressed a shiver. This was truly a necropolis, a city of the dead. She heard a sound; a group of soldiers were leaving, there torches mere pinpricks of light. Behind her the door to the tower clattered and banged. Miriam went back and, carefully closing the door behind her, went down the steps. She reentered Memnon's chamber, and her stomach pitched. Someone had been here. The oil lamps had been moved.

Someone was coming up the stairs. Her blood chilled, yes she was sure, one foot dragging after the other; something smacked against the stone wall time and again as if a drum where being beaten. She recalled Memnon's words about Oedipus, the swollen foot, ancient king of Thebes. And what had Alexander said? That Oedipus's ghost had been seen in Thebes. The sounds grew nearer.

"Who is it?" Miriam screamed. She hurried towards the shutters, pulled off the bar, and threw them open. The cold night air rushed in. Miriam was only aware of that terrible crashing against the door. She turned, dagger in hand, and then the knocking ceased.

--From A Murder in Thebes

Customer Reviews

a neat and tidy mystery
After reading the first book in this short lived series, I simply had to read the next one. A Murder in Thebes is not THE best mystery I've ever read, but it is was still a pleasing read. The heroine, Miriam, was a captivating character, however, Simione, her brother felt 2D. I especially appreciated the involvement of Alexander and the political intrigues in that period. Overall: worth reading if you're a fan of Alexander the Great.

Lackluster follow up to a wonderful novel.
What more could you ask for in setting and plot? Staging a mystery among the ranks of Alexander the Great's troops, during the early years of his reign. It should be a sure fire success, especially for such an esteemed writer of historical fiction. But the drab Israelite Miriam, who is the sleuth in these tales, serves as a voice of criticism of a culture that the writer clearly doesn't understand.

I mean this in the fact that the 'history' is excellent, the plotting is well done, but the constant remarks deriding Greek culture and religion is simply ignorant. A shame.

Add to this the distraction that the reader is constantly assaulted with mispellings and errors in grammar every few pages, showing that some editor should have lost their job over this one. :)

Second Book in the Series
This is a novel by Paul Doherty writing as he so often does under a pseudonym. Paul Doherty is the consummate professional when it comes to writing historical mystery novels. I for one do not know how he can be so prolific with his offering of books and yet make sure that each of them is well researched. Whether they be 13th, 14th, or fifteenth century they are always true to the period. He also writes about Ancient Egypt and now he has taken to writing about Alexander the Great.

This is the second book in the Alexander mysteries. The books are very enjoyable as Paul Doherty's books always are, but in the case of these offerings, historically the truth may be bent more than a little, which may offend some purists, but the book is a novel and there to entertain rather than give a history lesson.

Thebes has succumbed to the unstoppable war machine of Alexander the Great, and the days following are filled with murder and intrigue. Lysander and Memmon, two of Alexander's favourite officers have been killed by a dangerous spy, and Alexander's rule is precarious until he solves the dangerous riddle of Oedipus' crown.