Five for Silver: A John the Eunuch Mystery [Paperback]

Mary Reed (Author), Eric Mayer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2004

The year is 542. While plague stalks Constantinople, an angel sets John the Eunuch on the trail of a human killer.

Peter, John's elderly servant, claims a heavenly visitor revealed a murder to him. It transpires Peter's old army friend has indeed been stabbed, but then John discovers that Gregory was not what he appeared to be.

Is the solution to the mystery to be found in a hidden identity, in the will made by a dying ship owner with a wayward son, or perhaps even amid the oracles in the merchant's garden?

John's quest leads him to churchmen and whores, lawyers and bear trainers. Suspects include a dealer in dubious antiquities, a resourceful bookseller, a court poet fixated on bereavement, and a holy fool who outrages the city by dancing with the dead and invading the empress' private bath.

Only a man of unbending principle could hope to find justice in a terrified city where the good and the bad are struck down indiscriminately, where disorder rules, and where witnesses may die before they can be questioned. A city, in short, where death is the murderer's accomplice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reed and Mayer surpass last year's fine Four for a Boy with this superb fifth entry in their series to feature smart, determined and credibly human sleuth John the Eunuch, Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor Justinian. In the year 542, in the plague-stricken city of Constantinople, John's aged servant, Peter, has an angelic vision telling him that Gregory, a close friend from his army days, has been murdered. Distraught, Peter asks John to find the killer. Verifying that Gregory has indeed been stabbed to death, John proceeds to interview everyone who may be connected to the crime from lawyers to doctors, from prostitutes to a holy fool who dances with the dead in the streets, perhaps the most striking of several memorable supporting characters. Peter's falling ill and the return home of John's daughter complicate a riveting plot that never dips into melodrama. Not just a chilling backdrop, the plague that runs rampant through the city, afflicting rich and poor alike, is linked to the murder. The conflict between Christians and pagans adds further weight to this sterling historical page-turner.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Readers familiar with this entertaining historical-mystery series will recognize that this is the fifth installment. (Each volume in the series has a number in its title.) The year: 542 AD. The place: Constantinople. John the Eunuch, the emperor Justinian's Lord Chamberlain, learns that his servant and friend, Peter, had a vision in which a man was murdered. It turns out that there really was a murder and that the victim, an old friend of Peter's, was a powerful figure in the customs office. Who killed him and why? In a John the Eunuch novel, the mystery is only half the fun. The other half comes from the delightful supporting characters (in this case, a shady antiques dealer, a bookseller, and a poet, among others) and the crafty way in which the authors discreetly sneak in little nuggets of historical information. The historical-mystery series that stand the test of time are those that put story first and research second. This is one of those series. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 259 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press; 1st edition (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590581121
• ISBN-13: 978-1590581124
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,498,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five for Silver a Must Read!, July 21, 2004

By 

A. E Maloney "Lochthyme" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Five for Silver: A John the Eunuch Mystery (Paperback)

The year is 542. Peter, John the Lord Chamberlain's elderly servant, claims a heavenly visitor revealed a murder to him. It transpires that Peter's old army friend has indeed been stabbed, but then John discovers that Gregory was not what he appeared to be. Is the solution to the mystery to be found in a hidden identity, in the will made by a dying ship owner with a wayward
son, or perhaps even amid the oracles in a merchant's garden.

Five for Silver is set in Constantinope against the backdrop of the plague. It is an extemely well written mystery with loads of terrific historical detail and well developed characters you come to care about. The details on the plague will give you the chills just imagining what it must have been like to live thru it. An elaborately plotted mystery that will leave you guessing, speculating and trying to solve it until the very end. Just when
you think you have finally figured it out....you haven't! A must read mystery that will send you scrambling for the first four in this dynamite series.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great sense of place in fine historical mystery series, June 30, 2004

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Five for Silver: A John the Eunuch Mystery (Paperback)

A plague is ripping through Constantinople during the reign of Justinian at the very beginning of the Byzantine Empire. So many people are dying that the Emperor has commissioned ships to be filled with bodies, towed to the harbor, and set ablaze. With so many dead, one more wouldn't seem to be a big deal. But John the Eunuch, Lord Chamberland to the Emperor, feels compelled to search for the killer of one man--a longtime friend and former soldier comrad of Peter, John's cook. According to Peter, an angel came, demanding vengence. While John follows Mithra rather than Christianity, he owes his faithful servant the investigation.

In a city being emptied by plague and people fleeing the plague, it's hard to find witnesses but John establishes a possible connection. Gregory, the dead man, had recently witnessed a will. When other witnesses also turn up dead, it seems that John is onto something--but what.

Authors Mary Reed and John Mayer do a wonderful job depicting what was then the greatest and most powerful city in the world. The holy fool, the aspiring poets, the politically savvy and dangerous Empress Theodora, and especially John the Eunuch and his family really come to life.

Reed and Mayer use the mosaic metaphor several times in their book and, in fact, present a bit of a mosaic of Constantinople. Not all of the crimes that John uncovers are connected to one another, but they are connected to the extended family that John has built in the new Rome. FIVE FOR SILVER is therefore a very personal story.

John the Eunuch is one of the most entertaining of the historical mystery series being written today. If you haven't discovered it yet, you're in for a treat.