High Priestess Iliona is back for a second mystery after her debut with Blind Eye (also reviewed on Myshelf). This time mutilated bodies keep turning up, perhaps inevitable for the superstitious given that it is a time similar to our Halloween, but still suspicious. The most likely candidate is somebody from the newly arrived trade delegation from Scythia. Or is it all a plot hatched by Athens to undermine their ancient enemy? Iliona must discover whodunit fast before anybody else gets killed, and before her second cousin— the king— or the ruthless head of the secret police— Lysander— decide that it is time for a new high priestess of Eurotas.

Marilyn Todd is renowned for her much-loved Claudia series, and this is a new venture for her. Books set in ancient Greece abound (mostly about Alexander the Great), but a novel set in Sparta is far more unusual. There is an authentic-seeming ambience about this novel that those more in the know about the place and period might well dispute, but for those whose knowledge about Sparta came from school history lessons it is good enough. This is after all a novel, not a history text. More surprising is the somber tone of the book, for we are used to a humorous tenor in the Claudia series, and the first in this series perhaps set a more serious note, but this goes beyond that. There are similarities to her other books, but reading this is like viewing her other work through a glass darkly. I can only imagine that it signifies a change for this other series.