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    Seven For a Secret
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    Seven For a Secret
    Unavailable
    Seven For a Secret
    Ebook356 pages4 hours

    Seven For a Secret

    By Mary Reed and Eric Mayer

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Lord Chamberlain John spends his days counseling Emperor Justinian and passes the small hours of night in conversation with the solemn-eyed little girl depicted in a mosaic on his study wall. He never expected to meet her in a public square or afterwards find her red-dyed corpse in a subterranean cistern. Had the mysterious woman truly been the model for the mosaic years before as she claimed? Why had she sought John out? Who wanted her dead—and why?

    The answers seem to lie among the denizens of the smoky streets of the quarter of Constantinople known as the Copper Market, where artisans, beggars, prostitutes, pillar saints, and exiled aristocrats struggle to survive within sight of the Great Palace. In his investigations, John encounters a faded actress, a patriotic sausage maker, a sundial maker who fears the sun, a religious visionary, a man who lives in a treasure trove, and a beggar who owes his life to a cartload of melons. But before long he suspects he is attempting to unravel not just a murder but a plot against the empire....

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateNov 30, 2011
    ISBN9781615951734
    Unavailable
    Seven For a Secret

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    Reviews for Seven For a Secret

    3.5/5

    22 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoy John the Eunuch series. John is such an interesting character, the plot is well developed, and the setting and historical background are first rate.
    • 3/5
      Another John the Eunuch mystery set in Justinian's Constantinople. Not as good as some others in this series; much was contrived, as you'd expect based on Procopius, the old gossip and rumormonger. This mystery brought together a woman who claims to be the model for the mosaic girl in John's study and who is murdered then thrown down a cistern and dyed red as an attempt to conceal her identity and to obliterate a tattoo on her wrist. John feels he must investigate the death as in a way it touches him personally. There are several more bodies as the story progresses. The novel brings together a stylite, several eccentric shopkeepers [sundial maker, antiquities seller, dyer], the putative illegitimate son of Theodora, and a cabal planning a coup against the royal couple.John's a fascinating character; the others felt as though they were merely foils who played off of him. The author's done her research, but the style was a bit arid and events were often implausible. You do get a good feel for Constantinopolitan life. The author is nothing if not original.