Democracy by Alecos Papadatos

Democracy

Alecos Papadatos & Abraham Kawa & Annie Di Donna
GN P197d

Democracy opens in 490 B.C., with Athens at war. The hero of the story, Leander, is trying to rouse his comrades for the morrow’s battle against a far mightier enemy, and begins to recount his own life, having borne direct witness to the evils of the old tyrannical regimes and to the emergence of a new political system. The tale that emerges is one of daring, danger, and big ideas, of the death of the gods and the tortuous birth of democracy. We see that democracy originated through a combination of chance and historical contingency--but also through the cunning, courage, and willful action of a group of remarkably talented and driven individuals.

(from publisher)

Death Ex Machina by Gary Corby

Death Ex Machina
Gary Corby
Fiction C811a5

 A theatrical murder sends classical Athens into uproar

It’s the time of the Great Dionysia, the largest arts festival of the ancient world, held each year in honor of Dionysos, the god of wine. But there’s a problem: A ghost is haunting Athens’s grand theater.

Nicolaos and his clever partner in sleuthing (and now in matrimony), the priestess Diotima, are hired to rid the theater of the ghost so that the festival can begin. With the help of Theokritos, the High Priest of Dionysos, they exorcise the ghost publicly, while secretly suspecting that a human saboteur is the actual culprit.

Their efforts to protect the theater fall short when one of the actors is found hanged from the machine used to carry
actors through the air when they play the part of gods. It’s quite a theatrical murder.

As Nico and Diotima dig into the actor’s past, they discover all was not as it seemed. There are enough suspects to fill a theater. As the festival approaches and pressure mounts on all sides, can they hunt down the killer in time? Or will they simply have to hope for a deus ex machina?

(from publisher)