Buy this book
Books N Bytes participates in affiliate programs including Amazon Associates and Bookshop.org. We may earn a commission when you purchase through our links at no extra cost to you.
A Murder in Thebes is one of the Paul Doherty Alexander the Great mysteries, with Alexander himself as a peripheral figure and the actual investigation conducted by his royal scribe Telamon. The case involves a death in the besieged city of Thebes that has political ramifications for Alexander's campaign.
Doherty is a working historian and the period detail is the book's engine. The Greek military camps, the Theban city politics, the religious texture of the Hellenic world, all carry weight. The puzzle is fair. Telamon's detection style is observant and quiet.
Four stars. Recommended to readers who like their historical mysteries set in serious antiquity. Doherty's career-long commitment to the form has produced a deep back catalog worth exploring.
Related reads
If you liked A Murder in Thebes
The House of Death
by Paul C. Doherty
A Paul Doherty Alexander the Great mystery. Murder in a Persian palace. Reliable historical fair-play procedural.
The Godless Man
by Paul C. Doherty
A Paul Doherty Alexander the Great mystery set after Issus. Persian temple intrigue and an investigator pushed beyond his usual comforts.
Bury Me Deep
by Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott rewriting a real 1930s Phoenix murder case as a fever dream. Period noir with a feminist undertow.
The End of Everything
by Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott writing a thirteen-year-old's point of view as her best friend disappears. Quiet, devastating, almost too uncomfortable to recommend.
River Of Darkness
by Rennie Airth
The first John Madden mystery. Post-WWI English countryside, a returning detective, and a serial killer whose methods come straight from the trenches.
The Winter Queen
by Boris Akunin
The first Erast Fandorin novel. A young clerk in 1876 Moscow investigates an apparent suicide and falls down a labyrinth.
More by this author