The Athenian Murders - Tapa blanda

A delightfully paranoic read on both ancient and modern planes with enough literary cunning to satisfy fans of Nabokov's PALE FIRE as well as THE NAME OF THE ROSE (INDEPENDENT)

Extremely subtle and intelligent...totally absorbing (EVENING STANDARD)

It works, superbly (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)

This is both a riveting historical novel and a subtle, unpretentious investigation of what happens when writers write and readers read. (SUNDAY TIMES)

THE ATHENIAN MURDERS is a brilliant, very entertaining and absolutely original literary mystery, revolving round two intertwined riddles. In classical Athens, one of the pupils of Plato's Academy is found dead. His idealistic teacher suspects that this wasn't an accident and asks Heracles, known as the 'Decipherer of Enigmas', to investigate the death and ultimately a dark, irrational and subversive cult. The second plot unfolds in parallel through the footnotes of the translator of the original Greek text. As he proceeds with his work, he becomes increasingly convinced that the Greek author has hidden a second meaning, which can be brought to light by interpreting certain repeated words and images. As the main plot and also the translation of the manuscript advances, there are certain sinister coincidences, and it seems that the text is addressing him personally and in an increasingly menacing manner... THE ATHENIAN MURDERS constitutes a highly compelling, entertaining and intelligent novel.