Award-winning mystery writer Barbara Cleverly returns to 1920s Greece, where her first Laetitia Talbot mystery (Tombs of Zeus, also reviewed on Myshelf) unfolded.

Letty, an accomplished archaeologist, is attending an open-air performance of Agamemnon in Athens when a man is murdered on stage in full view of the audience.

The victim, a scholar and friend of Letty’s, has been researching Alexander of Macedon, the Greek ruler who saw himself as a great avenger, so it is only fitting that the gutsy heroine seeks out the dead man’s killer.

As she excavates for clues, Letty unearths some disturbing secrets and before she knows it, the archaeologist finds herself in her own Greek tragedy and the outcome may elicit further sadness and tears.

If you enjoy historical mysteries with plenty of atmosphere and an abundance of complications, A Darker God is sure to please. Cleverly has won both the Ellis Peters Award for Best Historical Crime Fiction and the Crime Writers’ Association’s Historical Dagger Award. Obviously her attention to detail and splendid characterization have garnered the critics’ attention.