Death on Delos is the seventh adventure for Nicolaos and Diotima, and as you can tell from the cover, Diotima is slightly pregnant!
I won't summarize the book for you, because the highly esteemed Publishers Weekly has done a sterling job of describing the opening disasters in their review, which you will find to the right.
You might notice it's a starred review. It's also the seventh straight starred review for this series. That's kind of a big thing in the publishing world.
Just thought I'd mention this. The Metropolitan of New York is one of the world's great museums. Needless to say they have a pile of older catalogues and books. Hundreds of which are now online and freely downloadable!
Go here to start browsing. There's something for just about everyone in the lists.
I found this while searching around for some pictures of ancient Greek jewelry. I stayed to collect vast amounts of stuff about Renaissance masterpieces, Babylonian art, Egyptian calligraphy, Assyrian friezes, illuminated manuscripts, the architecture of mediaeval Spain...I could be quite some time reading it all.
A big thanks to the Met for the very generous availability.
Pub day means you can now buy the book in stores. As opposed to the Australian meaning of pub, a place where you go to drink beer. Though as it happens, the Egyptians in The Singer From Memphis are totally into their beer. Nico can't get a decent cup of wine anywhere. But he still has to solve murders and uncover hidden treasures in the trackless wastes of the desert.
Pub day is a weird thing for an author. We don't fly from store to store selling the books personally. We didn't print the books ourselves; we didn't ship them to their shelves. All those highly important things are done by other wonderful people.
So what does an author do on pub day? Well, he writes the next book.
Death On Delos is finished in first draft. I've even written the author note that so many people like to read. It will be Book 7 of the Athenian Mysteries. The Singer From Memphis is Book Six ... and that's really quite remarkable.
I hope you enjoy reading Nico & Diotima's adventures as much as I like writing them.
Here's a great example of how the most unexpected things can turn up in the unlikliest places.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-36219991
John Squire was a British army engineer who was involved at the siege of Badajoz in the Peninsular War. Like all the best army officers of the time, he was a gentleman scholar. He personally knew Wellington, traveled all over the place, and kept a fascinating journal.
Which has turned up in a second hand bookstore in Hobart, Tasmania; about as far from Badajoz as you can get and still be on the same planet. My family and I were there just last year. I must have walked within twenty meters of that journal and never knew.
