|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
In this fourth in his series set in Classical Greece, Australian author Gary Corby turns his Athenian sleuth Nicolaos loose on a mystery involving a deceased traitor, the tyrant Hippias. Two girls who are studying at the Sanctuary of Artemis find a skeleton and a scroll case in a cave near the school. One of the girls is killed by a bear and the other girl disappears. One of the priestess sends word, the scrolls, and the skeleton's head back to the Basileus in Athens. Pericles, the Athenian statesman, asks his protégée Nico to investigate. There is reason to believe that the skeleton is that of the last tyrant of Athens, Hippias, who was thought to have died after the Battle Marathon over thirty years ago.
Once the victim is identified there are numerous people willing to admit to the murder. Many people believe that by confessing to this crime, their standing in the upcoming elections will improve. In order to get a clear view of the situation, Nico and his bride to be, Diotima, travel to the school to investigate. (Diotima once studied at the school as a young girl herself, so she should be able to provide additional information.) Nico believes that it will be easier to solve the modern crimes first. Then this new information will direct them to the murderer of Hippias.
Unfortunately things at the school are not what they seem. There is a power struggle among the priestess and one of them seems to know secrets about Diotima's past. The situation regarding the two girls is complicated as well. There has been no evidence of a bear in the area so how did the girl truly die? What did the girls find that is so dangerous? Nico and Diotima are running out of time to locate the missing girl and solve the murder, as someone is willing to kill them in order to keep the past a secret.
This is the third book in the series, but is the first book I have read. THE MARATHON CONSPIRACY does make references to events that occurred in the first two books in the series – such as a wedding in a prison – yet it is possible to enjoy the book and make sense of the plot line.
Nico makes an appealing protagonist as he works to understand the world around him. In this book, he must deal with belittling attitudes toward women as the father of the missing girl refuses to take Nico's investigation seriously, since in his view the girl is simply being silly and hiding somewhere. In addition, Nico learns something about the women's world that as an Athenian man he would not be privy to. For example, he learns how students of the Temple of Artemis must give away their "childish" things like their toys before they are allowed to graduate. These are all things that he would not be familiar with as a man in Athenian culture. Gary Corby does a good job of blending these learning experiences with the detection and so informing readers in an unobtrusive way about aspects of ancient Greek culture that they might otherwise not know. I look forward to reading the earlier books in the series.
§ Sarah Dudley, with a BA in English Literature, currently lives in PA with her herd of cats.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, April 2014
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
