Why are sheep in a remote Egyptian village cutting their own throats?...That's the mystery Emperor Justinian in-explicably sends his Lord Chamberlain John the Eunuch to solve, at the very time John desperately needs to clear himself of accusations he murdered a senator in the Hippodrome.

Mehenopolis, a pilgrim destination thanks to its ancient shrine to a snake deity as well as the home of the late sheep, is nearly as byzantine in its ways and undercurrents as Constantinople.

Among suspicious 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 bee-keeper, and a disgraced charioteer. Meanwhile, in Constantinople, John's good friend Anatolius does his best to trace the senator's murderer.

At stake are not only John's honor and his head, but also the family with whom he recently reunited, now in danger of being broken apart or worse.

Reviews

A busy historical mystery with an engagingly wry tone. Many detours, but getting there is most of the fun.--Kirkus Reviews (10/01/05)

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Mary Reed and Eric Mayer are the most reliable hit-producing machine since The Everly Brothers. Their latest John caper, Six For Gold, is as

aureate as its title. In this outing, our hero is sent to the always mysteriously dangerous land of Egypt, ostensibly to probe at imperial orders reported cases of suicidal sheep - an inspired touch, this. While John, with wife and servant, encounter sundry bizarre local personalities and customs, back

in Constantinople his friends and enemies are kept busy with intrigues and murders, creating an effective double narrative. Though their scenes

are few, we feel the sinister presence of Justinian and Theodora looming over every move. The dungeon encounter between John and the malevolent empress is one of the most genuinely blood-curdling chapters I have read in years. As always, there are many rib-ticking jokes (I may have to sue the authors for permanent damage to said body parts), and the mastery of Byzantine 'Realia' is as impressive as ever. I iterate my standard complaint about this series: why cannot Reed-Mayer bring out one a month? Still, while Sue Grafton must presumably pension off Kinsey after

26, unless she switches to the Greek alphabet, the One-For, Two-For sequence is happily infinite.

-- Barry Baldwin, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Calgary.

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John, Lord Chamberlain for Emperor Justinian, is wanted for the murder of a senator. So begins the sixth novel, "Six for Gold," by Reed and Mayer featuring John the Eunuch, the chief councilor to the Emperor in first century Constantinople.

But nothing is quite as it seems. Although the plague that has ravished Constantinople is beginning to dwindle, the city has not yet come back to life. John is apparently not actually being accused of murder, but the murder is an excuse for the Emperor to banish John to Egypt on a secret mission. However, his chief antagonist, Theodora, the Empress, would just as soon have John executed, and the senator's murder is as good an excuse as she can find. The Emperor, luckily for John, has something else in mind. It seems that in the remote oasis of Mehenopolis, sheep are committing suicide. Suicidal sheep? Yes, they apparently slice their own throats. That is the surface excuse for John's trip to faraway Egypt, accompanied by his faithful servant, Peter, and John's "wife," Cornelia.

Meanwhile, as John takes his trip to Egypt, his friends, scribe-and-poet-turned-lawyer, Anatolius, with captain of the excubitors (Emperor's guard), Felix, investigate the murder of Senator Symacchus. While they do so, they find, as is often the case in Byzantine-era Constantinople, a treacherous landscape of deals, double-crosses and power grabs.

While Anatolius and Felix investigate a murder, John is entwined in a peculiar case of religious fraud, land battles, and a self-proclaimed magician. The magician guards the gates of a temple maze called the Rock of the Snake, where the snake god, Mehen, will cure ill pilgrims who manage to find their way to the center of the maze without light. And unknown to John, an assassin has been sent from Constantinople to assure John never returns. -- Mark Terry,The Oakland Press (1.8.2006)

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John the Eunuch, Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor Justinian, is facing his oddest case yet: in a secluded Egyptian village, sheep are apparently

committing suicide. Charged with solving this oddball mystery, John is distracted by his own problems: he has been accused of murdering a senator, and if he doesn't clear his name, very bad things will happen to him. This is the sixth John the Eunuch novel, and the series shows no signs of slowing down. As usual the authors write precisely and gracefully, maintaining a perfect balance between historical atmosphere and old-fashioned mystery. The setting, sixth-century Byzantium, is still fresh, still full of wonders and weirdness. And, like Lindsey Davis' Falco series, there's an agreeable mixture of drama and comedy. Fans of the series will be overjoyed. --David Pitt, Booklist (10/01/05)

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Set in plague-ridden sixth-century Constantinople, Reed and Mayer's captivating sixth John the Eunuch novel (after 2004's Five for Silver) opens dramatically as John, lord chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, flees "excubitors" (i.e., palace guards) in the Hippodrome. Justinian's not-so-nice wife, Theodora, wants John prosecuted for a senator's murder, but the emperor has other ideas and spirits him away to the oasis town of Mehenopolis, Egypt, to look into a strange case of suicidal sheep. John soon suspects a link with another investigation for the emperor involving a valuable religious artifact. Filled with quirky characters, including a bee seller and a magician, this fresh entry with its intriguing details of Egyptian culture reveals further depths to the most clever John and his family members. A helpful glossary rounds out the book. --Publishers Weekly (9/16/05)

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Praise for Five for Silver

"Reed and Mayer surpass last year's fine Four for a Boy with this superb fifth entry in their series to feature smart, determined and credibly human sleuth John the Eunuch, Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor Justinian.... The conflict between Christians and pagans adds further weight to this sterling historical page-turner."

--Publishers Weekly starred review"