Death on Delos

de Gary Corby

"Greece, 545 BC: It is illegal to die on the sacred isle of Delos. It's also illegal to give birth there. Yet when murder is committed, the only available detective to solve the crime is the priestess Diotima, and she is heavily pregnant. Delos is the holy birthplace of the divine twins Apollo and Artemis, and it is an island in crisis. Not only has murder tainted the holy sanctuary, but there are about a thousand Athenian troops on the island. The army is led by the statesman Pericles and has come to take away the treasury of the Delian League, the defense fund of the Greeks against the Persian Empire. The holy people are in uproar. The Athenians are exasperated. The High Priest of the Delian Apollo is not amused. To cap it off, Diotima's husband and fellow detective, Nicolaos, is implicated in dodgy dealings that link him to the murder. Somehow Diotima must find the killer, calm the island, and. oh, yes. have a baby"-- "Greece, 545 BC: The sacred isle of Delos was the birthplace of the divine twins Apollo and Artemis, and has been a most holy pilgrimage site for centuries. But now it also serves a more secular function--it is the home of the treasury of the Delian League, the defensive union of Greek city-states who have come together in wake of the Persian Wars. The treasury is a vast fund, and it is protected only by the priests and priestesses of the tiny isle and a scant armed guard. Now Pericles, the charismatic Athenian statesman, has sent his agent Nico to Delos on a dangerous (and possibly illegal) mission: to claim the treasury and bring it back to Athens, where Pericles thinks it will be safer. Nico travels with his heavily pregnant wife and partner in sleuthing, the priestess Diotima, who has been selected to give this year's annual offering to Artemis. Expecting righteous resistance, Pericles has also tasked Nico with bribing priests who try to prevent the treasury from being moved. But before he can get very far with this dubiously unholy task, Nico ends up with a murder on his hands. It is a crime against the gods to die or be born on the sacred island. Thanks to the violence over the treasury, the first blasphemy has already been committed. Can Nico solve the murder and get Diotima off the island before they accidentally commit the second?"--