In Byzantium, the capital of the 6th century Roman Empire, annual games are held to celebrate the founding of the city. Several courtiers, obliged by office to attend, idly watch the chariot races and the bear baiting from the imperial box. Suddenly they—and the crowd—are electrified as a magnificent bull surges into the arena. Those who worship Mithra make quiet reverence to the sacred animal while a trio of bull leapers enters in his wake. John, Lord Chamberlain to the Christian Emperor,...

"[A] spot-on recreation of the political and bureaucratic climate of the times." — Publishers Weekly STARRED reviewThe year is 548 and Empress Theodora is dead. Emperor Justinian suspects murder and orders John, his Lord Chamberlain, to find her killer or suffer the consequences. Many aristocrats at the imperial court had reason to want Theodora dead. General Artabanes, Justinian's cousin Germanus, and Antonina and her husband General Belisarius have suffe...

Why are sheep in the remote Egyptian village of Mehenopolis cutting their own throats? That's the mystery Emperor Justinian inexplicably sends John, his Lord Chamberlain, to Egypt to solve. Mehenopolis is a pilgrim destination, thanks to its ancient shrine to a snake deity.Among the characters John encounters are a pretentious local landowner battling a self-styled magician for control of the lucrative shrine, an exiled heretical cleric, an itinerant beekeeper, and a disgraced char...

Lord Chamberlain John spends his days counseling Emperor Justinian and passes the small hours of night in conversation with the solemn-eyed little girl depicted in a mosaic on his study wall. He never expected to meet her in a public square or afterwards find her red-dyed corpse in a subterranean cistern. Had the mysterious woman truly been the model for the mosaic years before as she claimed? Why had she sought John out? Who wanted her dead—and why?The answers seem to lie among th...

Winner, the Glyph Award - Best MysteryHonorable Mention, Glyph Best Book Award list IPPY Best Mystery Award finalistJohn 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 th...

In January 532, mobs ruled Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire. Against a backdrop lit by raging fires, John, Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, must find those who would use the Nika Riots to dethrone the emperor. But are the ringleaders still in the city—or even alive?Porphyrius, the famous charioteer, may know more than he tells about the disappearance of two men under imperial guard. What of the brothers with a distant claim on the throne? Or the headstrong young girl? W...

Nominee, Bruce Alexander History Mystery AwardBest Little Known Series, BooklistIt'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 Justinia...

548 CE, Constantinople. Emperor Justinian, distraught from the death of his wife, Empress Theodora, has exiled his longtime aide, John, the Lord Chamberlain. At the Church of the Holy Apostles, an Egyptian magician tries to raise the empress from the dead. As the unholy ceremony explodes into chaos, supposed demons vanish into the darkness with one of the city's holiest relics. Felix, Captain of the Palace Guard, is selected as John's successor and charged with finding the missing relic.

Winner, Glyph Award for Best Book SeriesNominee, Bruce Alexander History Mystery AwardIn 542, Peter, John the Lord Chamberlain's elderly servant, claims a heavenly visitor revealed a murder to him. It transpires that Peter's old army friend has indeed been stabbed, but then John discovers that Gregory was not what he appeared to be.John's quest for the truth leads him to churchmen and whores, lawyers and bear trainers. Suspects incl...

It's 539 AD, and John the Lord Chamberlain finds his investigations hampered by squabbling courtiers, servants with social ambitions, an eccentric host, and an egotistic inventor—not to mention a herd of prophesying goats and a protective whale. The Mithran Anatolius and the excubitor captain Felix only add to John's worries when they fall under the spell of two ambitious women. Can the trio avoid Theodora's wrath as they work to protect a child and stop a heartless killer? Does the soluti...

This book features a collection of essays and testimonials that provide new perspectives and incisive criticism on the writings and theatrical productions of Nigerian American author, director, and theorist Femi Euba. Esu, the Yoruba trickster deity of the crossroads, brings cohesion to this project and serves as a guiding principle for its contributors who draw upon Esu’s mysteries to illuminate distinctive characteristics of Euba’s oeuvre. As a key figure of Wole Soyinka’s circle, Euba’s...

John, former Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, has been exiled from Constantinople to a rustic estate John has long owned in Greece, not far from where he grew up. But exile proves no escape from mystery and mayhem. The residents of nearby Megara make it plain John and his family are unwelcome intruders. His overseer proves corrupt. What of the other staff—and his neighbors?Before long, John finds himself accused of blasphemy and murder. Now a powerless outsider, he's on his o...