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NINE FOR THE DEVIL
By: Mary Reed
Poisoned Pen Press
March 2012
On Sale: March 15, 2012
313 pages
ISBN: 1590589947
EAN: 9781590589946
Kindle: B007H9JVB6
Hardcover / e-Book
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Historical | Fiction
"The year is 548 and Empress Theodora is dead of disease. Or so everyone in Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire, believes. Everyone except Emperor Justinian, who orders John, his Lord Chamberlain, to Β¬find her murderer or suffer the consequences. There is no sign of foul play, but many of the aristocrats at the imperial court had good reason to want Theodora dead. Suspects include General Artabanes, forced to occupy a house with an unloved wife; Justinianβs cousin Germanus, who has seen his career blocked; and Antonina and her husband General Belisarius, enraged by Theodoraβs attempt to marry their daughter to her grandson by compelling the young couple to live together. Could the exiled and much hated former tax collector John the Cappadocian have played a role? Might Gaius, palace physician, have tampered with Theodoraβs medication? Pope Vigilius, detained in the capital due to a religious controversy, is not above suspicion. Even Johnβs friends, the lawyer Anatolius and Felix, captain of the place guards, are acting strangely. As if seeking a murderer who seems to be a figment of the emperorβs grief-deranged imagination isnβt difficult enough, John must also grapple with domestic upheavals. His daughter, living on an estate outside the city, is about to give birth, and his aging servant Peter is dying. Will John be able to serve justice, his loved ones, and the emperor? "
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