Description

Hodder & Stoughton, [Published date: 2004]. Hardcover, viii, 276 pp; 24 cm. Second printing. Signed by the author on the title page. Very good in very good dust jacket. Blue boards with gold lettering on spine. Light bumping and scuffing to edges and corners of covers. Binding tight. Very light age toning to edges of text block. Otherwise pages are clean and unmarked. Dust jacket has a few small nicks and light overall scuffing. NOT price clipped. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. Not Ex-library. [From front jacket flap] I'd just totted up the column on the latest tablet for the third time and got my third different answer when there was a knock on the study door . . . If there is one thing Marcus Corvinus hates more than doing the household accounts, it is politics. So when he is interrupted in the former to get involved in the latter, he is not best pleased. His brief is to conduct an unofficial investigation into an attack on the Parthian Prince Phraates, a task that taxes his (none too) diplomatic skills to the utmost. Then the attack is followed by a successful murder of one of the Parthian delegation and a full diplomatic incident threatens. The byzantine twists and turns of the case give Corvinus a headache worse than his customary hangover, and it takes a violent threat to Perilla before he begins to get a grip on what is involved. Along the way he learns a lot about the spice trade - and has some problems with a basket of lampreys. David Wishart delves into classical history and culture to provide a rich background to a complex tale of murder. The immensely likeable Marcus Corvinus is an unconventional addition to the ranks of historical sleuths.