Darned close to being the perfect history mystery , Booklist.
Byzantium AD 535: Ambition, intrigue, treachery, murder... Just
another day in the Imperial Court.
DEATH IN BYZANTIUM: At the heart of what is left of the Roman
Empire, lies a city simmering with intrigue & treachery. Amid
this maelstrom stands John, a slave who has risen to become the
right hand of Justinian, the greatest of Byzantium's emperors. With
violence and murder commonplace, it is John's skills as an
investigator that the Emperor prizes the most.
ONE FOR SORROW: It is AD 527 and when the body of a high ranking
treasury official is found in a filthy alley behind a house of ill
repute, John embarks on an investigation that will stir the ghosts
of his past and threaten his life. Amid rumours of soothsayers and
priceless holy relics, he will follow a trail that twists and turns
through the splendour and the squalor of sixth-century Byzantium.
Before he reaches its end, John will defy the Patriarch of
Constantinople, risk the wrath of an unmerciful Emperor and incur
the undying hatred of his infamous Empress, Theodora.
