Beware of Greeks bearing knives... In the summer of 336 B.C., Philip of Macedon has summoned all of Greece to join him in celebration in the old capital of Aegae. As he enters the arena filled with his loyal subjects, he is brutally stabbed by the cruel dagger of Pausanias, a young captain of his guard. Soon the palace corridors are awash in fear and chaos: Philip's ex-wife, the witch Olympias and mother of his son Alexander, plots the violent death of his young successor; Alexander, unconvinced that Pausanias is actually his father's executioner, scours the city for a killer amidst rumors of his own illegitimacy; and everyone, including Alexander himself, falls under the dark cloud of suspicion. As Alexander struggles to fill his father's role as ruler of Greece, he calls on the help of his young Hebrew friends Miriam and Simeon to uncover not just Philip's assassin, but the mystery of his own origins. From the dark chambers of Olympia's lair to the sun-baked streets of ancient Greece, Anna Apostolou unfolds a magnificent tale of antiquity and intrigue in rich historical detail.
Alexander must fight for his throne, his father... and his life. Paul Doherty transports his readers to Ancient Greece in A Murder in Macedon - a gripping mystery featuring Alexander the Great. Perfect for fans of Gary Corby and Margaret Doody. 'If you want to know whodunit in ancient times, Doherty is your man' - Good Book Guide In the summer of 336 BC, Philip of Macedon is to celebrate his glorious reign. He has waded through a sea of blood to become master of Greece, but he also has troubles at home. He has divorced and rejected his first wife, the witch queen Olympias, while her son Alexander is the subject of a whispering campaign that he is not Philip's true heir. Philip summons all of Greece to attend his great celebration in the old capital of Aegae, but the Macedonian court is plunged into chaos and bloodshed when he is murdered by Pausanias. Alexander must fight for his rights against intrigue and treachery at home and abroad. In order to prove his own innocence, he also has to find out who was really responsible for Philip's death and why. Was Pausanias a lone assassin or acting on behalf of others? What readers are saying about A Murder in Macedon: 'A very enthralling story' 'An interesting twist' 'Paul Doherty - brilliant - nothing more to say'
MURDER IN BABYLON is a real-life historical detective story: a true tale of murder and mystery that has remained untold for over two thousand years. Recreating the scene of the crime to reveal eight suspects, each with the motive and opportunity to have assassinated the king. Graham Phillips uncovers a maze of intrigue, power-play and romantic tragedy that led inevitably towards Alexander's death. Ultimately, in a dramatic twist in the tale, the murderer is finally unveiled.
In the first authoritative biography of Alexander the Great written for a general audience in a generation, classicist and historian Philip Freeman tells the remarkable life of the great conqueror. The celebrated Macedonian king has been one of the most enduring figures in history. He was a general of such skill and renown that for two thousand years other great leaders studied his strategy and tactics, from Hannibal to Napoleon, with countless more in between. He flashed across the sky of history like a comet, glowing brightly and burning out quickly: crowned at age nineteen, dead by thirty-two. He established the greatest empire of the ancient world; Greek coins and statues are found as far east as Afghanistan. Our interest in him has never faded. Alexander was born into the royal family of Macedonia, the kingdom that would soon rule over Greece. Tutored as a boy by Aristotle, Alexander had an inquisitive mind that would serve him well when he faced formidable obstacles during his military campaigns. Shortly after taking command of the army, he launched an invasion of the Persian empire, and continued his conquests as far south as the deserts of Egypt and as far east as the mountains of present-day Pakistan and the plains of India. Alexander spent nearly all his adult life away from his homeland, and he and his men helped spread the Greek language throughout western Asia, where it would become the lingua franca of the ancient world. Within a short time after Alexander’s death in Baghdad, his empire began to fracture. Best known among his successors are the Ptolemies of Egypt, whose empire lasted until Cleopatra. In his lively and authoritative biography of Alexander, classical scholar and historian Philip Freeman describes Alexander’s astonishing achievements and provides insight into the mercurial character of the great conqueror. Alexander could be petty and magnanimous, cruel and merciful, impulsive and farsighted. Above all, he was ferociously, intensely competitive and could not tolerate losing—which he rarely did. As Freeman explains, without Alexander, the influence of Greece on the ancient world would surely not have been as great as it was, even if his motivation was not to spread Greek culture for beneficial purposes but instead to unify his empire. Only a handful of people have influenced history as Alexander did, which is why he continues to fascinate us.
A series of poisoned pilgrims requires the services of Canterbury's most intrepid sleuth.. . Paul Doherty introduces his medieval sleuth Kathryn Swinbrooke for the first time in A Shrine of Murders, the first in a gripping mystery series from the acclaimed historical novelist. Perfect for fans of Ellis Peters and Susanna Gregory. A serial killer haunts 15th-century Canterbury. Kathryn Swinbrooke is an independent practitioner of medicine, discovering the benefits of an apple-rich diet for teeth, and prescribing herbs and vinegar for almost every known malady. Canterbury's tourist trade, already jeopardized by the War of the Roses, is further imperilled by a spate of poisoned pilgrims, each corpse accompanied by the appearance of a line or two of rough verse, in style remarkably similar to Geoffrey Chaucer's soon-to-be famous work. Suspecting the murderer is a doctor, the Archbishop asks for Kathryn's help. In a fascinating hunt that pits her against the august town physicians, Kathryn is aided only by her wits, her foul-mouthed, warm-hearted servant Thomasina, and Colum Murtagh, a powerful Irish mercenary. What readers are saying about A Shrine of Murders: 'This is well researched, well written and a good story to curl up with on a dark winter's evening' 'Paul Doherty is a superb writer' 'Superb plot and characters. Kathryn is so interesting and insight into the history of the time is so well documented. You feel as if you were there and can even smell it!'
When Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-two, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea in the west all the way to modern-day India in the east. In an unusual compromise, his two heirs—a mentally damaged half brother, Philip III, and an infant son, Alexander IV, born after his death—were jointly granted the kingship. But six of Alexander’s Macedonian generals, spurred by their own thirst for power and the legend that Alexander bequeathed his rule “to the strongest,” fought to gain supremacy. Perhaps their most fascinating and conniving adversary was Alexander’s former Greek secretary, Eumenes, now a general himself, who would be the determining factor in the precarious fortunes of the royal family. James Romm, professor of classics at Bard College, brings to life the cutthroat competition and the struggle for control of the Greek world’s greatest empire.
What can we learn from the stunning rise and mysterious death of the ancient world’s greatest conqueror? An acclaimed biographer reconstructs the life of Alexander the Great in this magisterial revisionist portrait. “[An] infectious sense of narrative momentum . . . Its energy is unflagging, including the verve with which it tackles that teased final mystery about the specific cause of Alexander’s death.”—The Christian Science Monitor More than two millennia have passed since Alexander the Great built an empire that stretched to every corner of the ancient world, from the backwater kingdom of Macedonia to the Hellenic world, Persia, and ultimately to India—all before his untimely death at age thirty-three. Alexander believed that his empire would stop only when he reached the Pacific Ocean. But stories of both real and legendary events from his life have kept him evergreen in our imaginations with a legacy that has meant something different to every era: in the Middle Ages he became an exemplar of knightly chivalry, he was a star of Renaissance paintings, and by the early twentieth century he’d even come to resemble an English gentleman. But who was he in his own time? In Alexander the Great, Anthony Everitt judges Alexander’s life against the criteria of his own age and considers all his contradictions. We meet the Macedonian prince who was naturally inquisitive and fascinated by science and exploration, as well as the man who enjoyed the arts and used Homer’s great epic the Iliad as a bible. As his empire grew, Alexander exhibited respect for the traditions of his new subjects and careful judgment in administering rule over his vast territory. But his career also had a dark side. An inveterate conqueror who in his short life built the largest empire up to that point in history, Alexander glorified war and was known to commit acts of remarkable cruelty. As debate continues about the meaning of his life, Alexander's death remains a mystery. Did he die of natural causes—felled by a fever—or did his marshals, angered by his tyrannical behavior, kill him? An explanation of his death can lie only in what we know of his life, and Everitt ventures to solve that puzzle, offering an ending to Alexander’s story that has eluded so many for so long.
Anarchy and unrest make for a deadly investigation... In the first journal of Roger Shallot, the Tudor sleuth writes of the murders and villainy perpetrated during the reign of King Henry VIII in Paul Doherty's masterful novel, The White Rose Murders. Perfect for fans of Susannah Gregory and C. J. Sansom. 'The best of its kind since the death of Ellis Peters' - Time Out In 1517 the English armies have defeated and killed James IV of Scotland at Flodden and James's widow-queen, Margaret, sister to Henry VIII, has fled to England, leaving her crown under a Council of Regency. Roger Shallot is drawn into a web of mystery and murder by his close friendship with Benjamin Daunbey, the nephew of Cardinal Wolsey, first minister of Henry VIII. Benjamin and Roger are ordered into Margaret's household to resolve certain mysteries as well as to bring about her restoration to Scotland. They begin by questioning Selkirk, a half-mad physician imprisoned in the Tower. He is subsequently found poisoned in a locked chamber guarded by soldiers. The only clue is a poem of riddles. However, the poem contains the seeds for other gruesome murders. The faceless assassin always leaves a white rose, the mark of Les Blancs Sangliers, a secret society plotting the overthrow of the Tudor monarchy... What readers are saying about The White Rose Murders: 'Roger is a rogue and a villain, but so engaging that the reader soon becomes entangled in the complex mysteries' 'The plots are always original and interesting and populated by a wonderful cast of characters' 'Paul Doherty has a great talent for describing the gory and realistic details of Tudor life and bases his story on facts, which make it credible as well as a very entertaining whodunit'
Who killed Alexander the Great? After more than two thousand years of speculation, the assassin of Alexander is finally identified in a comprehensive investigation in The Murder of Alexander the Great (in two books: The Puranas and The Secret War). In Book 1: The Puranas Alexander's journey is chronicled not only through the siloed lens of Greek records but also through a comparison of ancient Indian and Greek texts and artifacts. For the first time ever, the story of the eminent king of Macedonia is retold from a different perspective - one that not only establishes Alexander prominently in ancient Sanskrit texts but also holds the key to resolving the age old mystery of his demise.Inspired by fresh awareness to an ancient conundrum that has perplexed historians for millennia, The Murder of Alexander the Great is a powerful narrative of blood thirsty wars, mystic locales, and epic encounters -- one that leads to SIXTEEN remarkable findings about Alexander the Great thus rewriting the history of this great emperor forever.
