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Six for Gold: A John the Lord Chamberlain Mystery (John the Eunuch) by Mary Reed |
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
John, Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor Justinian, continues his sixth-century A.D. adventures in this third worthy installment (following One for Sorrow and Two for Joy), in which nimble wits are required not to keep one's job but to keep one's head. John's position is particularly fragile since Justinian's support is notoriously fickle and his consort, the beautiful and dangerous Theodora, despises John. When an entertainment devised for Theodora results in the death of a young royal hostage and the disappearance of Barnabas, the empress's favorite dwarf, John is once again charged with the difficult and delicate task of ferreting out the truth. He is also charged with protecting the life of the remaining hostage, eight-year-old Sunilda, a task made even more daunting by the child's recklessness. Set not in Constantinople but on the nearby estate of a wealthy noble, the authors' latest mystery combines a finely nuanced historical background with a plot of great subtlety. The details of daily life, from food and food preparation to the care and writing of manuscripts, enhance the action. And the ongoing struggle between Christianity (Justinian's state religion) and the pagan rites that play a central role in the plot is particularly well drawn. If there's any flaw it's that John, while a sympathetic protagonist, is too self-contained to really arouse the reader's passions. Nonetheless, those who appreciate strong historical backgrounds and solid plotting will get their money's worth. The Byzantine mosaic art on the jacket is a real plus.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Return with us now to sixth-century Constantinople (A.D. 539, to be precise), where two politically important, eight-year-old twins are key players in Emperor Justinian's plans to resurrect the crumbling Roman Empire. However, the emperor's plans seem doomed when one of the twins is murdered. Enter John the Eunuch, the emperor's Lord Chamberlain, to save the day and, he hopes, the empire. This is the third John the Eunuch novel (after One for Sorrow, 1999, and Two for Joy, 2000), and it continues the authors' record of creating near-perfect historical mysteries. These novels are charming mixtures of humor, intrigue, and period detail. Like Ellis Peters and Lindsey Davis (whose own novels are also set in Roman times, although centuries earlier), Reed and Mayer have a solid grasp of the era they are writing about. This helps them avoid the all-too-common failing of historical mysteries: lecturing. It's easy to tell a reader all sorts of things about a particular historical period; it's a lot harder to know what not to tell. Characters in the John the Eunuch novels don't spend time telling each other things they already know, for the benefit of the reader: Reed and Mayer educate us in more subtle ways, and we're having so much fun following the story that we don't even realize we're learning things. An excellent entry in an excellent series. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
John, Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor Justinian, continues his sixth-century A.D. adventures in this third worthy installment (following One for Sorrow and Two for Joy), in which nimble wits are required not to keep one's job but to keep one's head. John's position is particularly fragile since Justinian's support is notoriously fickle and his consort, the beautiful and dangerous Theodora, despises John. When an entertainment devised for Theodora results in the death of a young royal hostage and the disappearance of Barnabas, the empress's favorite dwarf, John is once again charged with the difficult and delicate task of ferreting out the truth. He is also charged with protecting the life of the remaining hostage, eight-year-old Sunilda, a task made even more daunting by the child's recklessness. Set not in Constantinople but on the nearby estate of a wealthy noble, the authors' latest mystery combines a finely nuanced historical background with a plot of great subtlety. The details of daily life, from food and food preparation to the care and writing of manuscripts, enhance the action. And the ongoing struggle between Christianity (Justinian's state religion) and the pagan rites that play a central role in the plot is particularly well drawn. If there's any flaw it's that John, while a sympathetic protagonist, is too self-contained to really arouse the reader's passions. Nonetheless, those who appreciate strong historical backgrounds and solid plotting will get their money's worth. The Byzantine mosaic art on the jacket is a real plus.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Return with us now to sixth-century Constantinople (A.D. 539, to be precise), where two politically important, eight-year-old twins are key players in Emperor Justinian's plans to resurrect the crumbling Roman Empire. However, the emperor's plans seem doomed when one of the twins is murdered. Enter John the Eunuch, the emperor's Lord Chamberlain, to save the day and, he hopes, the empire. This is the third John the Eunuch novel (after One for Sorrow, 1999, and Two for Joy, 2000), and it continues the authors' record of creating near-perfect historical mysteries. These novels are charming mixtures of humor, intrigue, and period detail. Like Ellis Peters and Lindsey Davis (whose own novels are also set in Roman times, although centuries earlier), Reed and Mayer have a solid grasp of the era they are writing about. This helps them avoid the all-too-common failing of historical mysteries: lecturing. It's easy to tell a reader all sorts of things about a particular historical period; it's a lot harder to know what not to tell. Characters in the John the Eunuch novels don't spend time telling each other things they already know, for the benefit of the reader: Reed and Mayer educate us in more subtle ways, and we're having so much fun following the story that we don't even realize we're learning things. An excellent entry in an excellent series. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
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Citations
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4
books
cite this book:
- Five for Silver: A John the Eunuch Mystery by Mary Reed in Front Matter
- Four for a Boy: A John the Eunuch Mystery by Mary Reed in Front Matter
- The Mammoth Book of Egyptian Whodunnits (Mammoth Books) by Mike Ashley on page 337
- Six for Gold (John the Eunuch Mysteries) by Mary Reed in Front Matter
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