SEVEN FOR A SECRET

In the authors' John the Eunuch series, the main character is lord chamberlain to the emperor Justinian in sixth-century Byzantium. In this seventh installment John becomes obsessed with a woman who claims to have been the model for a girl in a mural that graces the courtier's walls. Later he finds the woman beaten to death. The resulting plot line is truly byzantine. Narrator James Adams sounds mildly bored as he delivers this convoluted story, but he does a fine job delineating characters, including women as diverse as an elderly nurse, an actress, and a royal pretender. The plotting is clever and the climax dramatic. Historical mystery lovers will welcome this investigator to the roster of able historic sleuths. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2008]