Winner, the Glyph Award - Best Mystery Honorable Mention, Glyph Best Book Award list IPPY Best Mystery Award finalist John the Eunuch, Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor Justinian, is skilled at keeping his footing on the treacherous slopes of court intrigue, but even he may slip when presented with a new and byzantine problem: why would a holy man high atop his pillar spontaneously combust during a thunder storm? Soon, other stylites burn to their...

Nominee, Bruce Alexander History Mystery Award Best Little Known Series, Booklist It's unnaturally cold in Constantinople this winter of 525. The Emperor Justin is dying, and Theodora, the ambitious former actress his gravely ill successor Justinian intends to marry, is making demands in the imperial court. When a wealthy philanthropist is killed in broad daylight in the Great Church, it isn't entirely surprising that Justinian engages an anonymous...

As a political riot breaks out in Constantinople, John, now chamberlain to the emperor Justinian, is tasked with finding two escaped prisoners, each belonging to a different racing faction at the heart of the riots.

Emperor Justinian's former Lord Chamberlain, John, receives an urgent message from an old friend summoning him to Rome, but once there, he finds his friend vanished and the mysteries mounting.