Pub day for The Singer From Memphis

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.

Starred recommendation for The Singer From Memphis

Here is the Publishers Weekly review for The Singer From Memphis.  It is a starred review!

The astonishing thing is, the Athenian Mysteries have now earned six starred reviews in a row. 

If you would like to see what happens when a classical Greek PI finds himself in ancient Egypt in the company of a budding history writer named Herodotus, then this might be the book for you.

"Corby’s trademark blend of humor, fascinating historical detail, and accessible presentation of the politics of the time has never been better."

---

 The Singer from Memphis

Gary Corby. Soho Crime
ISBN 978-1-61695-668-4

Early in Corby’s exceptional sixth novel set in ancient Greece (after 2015’s Deus Ex Machina ), Pericles, the most powerful man in Athens, asks Nicolaos, “the only private agent” in the city-state, to accompany the historian Herodotus on a trip to Egypt.

Ostensibly, Nicolaos will serve as a bodyguard, but his real mission is to aid Egyptians rebelling against Persian rule.  The rebels’ leader, Inaros, who claims to be descended from the last pharaoh, has asked for a “man of cunning and resource” to help take the city of Memphis, the last stronghold controlled by the enemy.

Pericles shares his suspicions with Nicolaos that Herodotus may be a spy in the employ
of the Persians. Later, pirates almost scuttle the journey to Egypt, and Nicolaos nearly loses his client to a master Spartan assassin. Eventually, Nicolaos must solve a murder, but this is more spy thriller than whodunit.

Corby’s trademark blend of humor, fascinating historical detail, and accessible presentation of the politics of the time has never been better.

Agent:
Janet Reid, FinePrint Literary. (May)

The Singer From Memphis

Nico & Diotima's sixth adventure begins on May 17! 

This time they are called on to escort an aspiring author named Herodotus.  He needs their help with some research for a book he's writing. 

But then, one or two minor details go wrong with that plan.