M.E. Mayer – författare

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. TWO FOR JOY: It is AD 537 and Constantinople is a city simmering on the edge of chaos, a maelstrom of creeds, cults and cultures. At is heart lies the Great Palace and the imperial court of the Roman Empire, a seething knot of ambition, competition, intrigue and treachery. John the Eunuch, Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor Justinian, is faced with a particularly byzantine problem: he must discover why three of Constantinople''s holy stylites have burned to death as they stand atop their pillars – just as a heretical preacher foretold they would. The hand of God or mortal? John must find out before hell is unleashed.

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. THREE FOR A LETTER: It is 539 AD and as the reconquest of Italy draws toward its close, a pair of eight-year old twins descended from the last Ostrogothic king have become valuable pawns in Emperor Justinian''s plans to restore the glory of Rome. Unfortunately, during the performance of a play at a banquet honoring the two young diplomatic hostages, death upstages the occasion and claims one brother. Then Empress Theodora''s favourite actor vanishes and John, Lord Chamberlain to Justinian, is ordered to find both the missing actor and the murderer... and to protect the life of the remaining twin. With Justinian''s dreams of Empire at stake, John will need all his wits to keep his job... and his head.

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. In this series prequel, John the Eunuch takes his first dangerous steps along the path that will lead him to hold office as Lord Chamberlain. In the unnaturally cold winter of 525, the city is convulsed by doubt and riots, Emperor Justin is dying and the streets are terrorized alternately by a group of thugs and forces under the City Prefect. When a wealthy philanthropist is murdered, rumours abound that the heir to the throne, Justinian, is trying to sway the succession. In an attempt to clear his name, Justinian engages an anonymous slave called John to investigate what many believe could be part of a succession conspiracy.

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. FIVE FOR SILVER: The year is 542 and plague ravages Constantinople. Amidst the chaos, John the Lord Chamberlain is on the trail of a murderer. Peter, John''s elderly servant, has an angelic vision telling him a close friend has been murdered, and asks John to find the killer. It transpires that Peter''s old friend has indeed been stabbed, but the victim was not what he appeared. In a city being emptied by plague, it''s hard to find evidence, but John establishes a possible connection. Only a man of unbending principle could hope to find justice in a terrified city where the good and the bad are struck down indiscriminately, where disorder rules, and where witnesses may die before they can be questioned.

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. SIX FOR GOLD: AD 542. John is chained and imprisoned, accused of murdering an imperial senator – and worse a favourite of the infamous empress Theodora. His life is almost certainly forfeit but Justinian spirits him out of Constantinople and to a remote Egyptian shrine. Why? And what is the connection between a series of brutal deaths in this remote outpost and what happened in Constantinople? If John can stay alive long enough, he may just find the key to returning home.

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. SEVEN FOR A SECRET. AD 542: An enigmatic young woman claims she has a secret for John. But before she can reveal it, her red-dyed corpse is found in a subterranean cistern. Who was she? What was her secret? John is intrigued by her resemblance to a solemn-eyed little girl depicted in a mosaic in the palace. His quest to discover her secrets will test his loyalty and endanger his life.

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. EIGHT FOR ETERNITY. January, 532: riots engulf Constantinople. To some the riots portend the end of the empire, to others the end of the world itself. Against a murderous backdrop lit by raging fires and rampaging mobs, John must untangle a web of intrigue and treachery before the emperor himself is deposed.

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. NINE FOR THE DEVIL: The year is 548 and Empress Theodora is dead, the victim of cancer. Or so everyone believes – everyone except the Emperor himself.Justinian orders John to find the murderer or suffer the consequences. It is an impossible investigation: there is no sign of foul play, but there are many at imperial court (including John himself) who had good reason to want Theodora dead...

Here are three great historical crime novels in one volume. ROMAN GAMES: Rome, AD 95 – a city under the thrall of a tyrant. It is up to Gaius Plinius Secundus – better known to posterity as Pliny the Younger – to investigate the murder of one of emperor''s favourites. He has just 15 days to solve the case, 15 days that will threaten Pliny''s conscience, his life and the stability of Rome itself. ONE FOR SORROW: Amid the splendour and the squalor of sixth-century Byzantium. A treasury official has been murdered. Could someone have killed him for a priceless holy relic? A Knight from distant Bretania seems to believe so... WINE OF VIOLENCE: AD 1270. On a remote East Anglian coast stands the priory of Tyndal, a place dedicated to love and peace. But Eleanor of Wynethorpe, the new prioress, will find little of either... Only a day after Eleanor''s arrival, a brutally mutilated monk is found dead in the cloister gardens.

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. But the emperor is not a sentimental man. Nor is he a patient one. John''s position is precarious: one misstep and his enemies may have him. And if they don''t, the emperor himself almost certainly will. Byzantium AD 533: In a secret underground temple, the victim was blindfolded, bound with entrails and cut open with knife. In blood, a scrawled message: ''thus perish all who hate the Lord of Light''. Who could have performed such an abomination? Why has the Empress Theodora taken such a personal interest? John''s investigation will lead him into world of hidden cults and lethal palace secrets.

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, ex-slave, now the right hand of Emperor Justinian. It is John''s skills as an investigator that Justinian prizes the most. But the emperor is not a sentimental man. Nor is he a patient one. John knows his position is precarious. One misstep and his enemies may have him. And if they don''t, the emperor himself almost certainly will.ONE FOR SORROW: When the body of a high-ranking treasury official is found in a filthy alley, John''s investigation stirs the ghosts of his past and threatens his life. TWO FOR JOY: John must discover why three of Constantinople''s holy stylites have burned to death atop their pillars. THREE FOR A LETTER: The murder of a child threatens Justinian''s dreams of resurrecting the glory of Roman Empire. John will need all his wits to keep his job... and his head. FOUR FOR A BOY: In this series prequel, John the slave takes his first steps along the dangerous path that will lead him to become Justinian''s Lord Chamberlain.

''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.