This is the book that takes us back fifteen years from John the Eunuch, Lord Chancellor during the reign of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora, to John the slave, recently eunuched and sold and shipped to Constantinople. However, already he has been noticed: in addition to his menial duties at the palace he is loaned to the patrician Lady Anna as a tutor - he teaches her Persian - and finds himself becoming, embarrassingly, her friend. And when an important philanthropist is murdered in the new Great Church, Justinian, who has a fever and is confined to his bed, places John among the investigators, presumably as his representative.
For Justinian is in a tricky position, and there are few people he can trust absolutely. He is Justin's heir, and clearly wants desperately to be the next emperor, but "there's many a slip twixt cup and lip", and not all heirs in Constantinople succeeded to the throne (Justin himself had not been the heir to the throne). He also wants to marry the ex-actress Theodora, a move that Justin is opposed to.
And now Justinian finds himself suspected of ordering the killing in the Great Church of "a great philanthropist" at the foot of the great statue he had paid for. Killing, not murdering, for as Theodora says, 'But to accuse you, emperor in all but name, of having a hand in the murder! Surely that is impossible. After all, emperors may kill. They cannot commit murder.'
Justinian reminds her that he is not yet emperor.
In fact, it is the one-time prostitute and would-be empress Theodora who, though she has no status whatsoever yet at the court, is organising everything, for with Justinian ill and Justin growing daily more ga-ga, the strings fall into her hands: men know that Justinian will sign anything she wants signed and that gives her almost absolute power.
In every series, there has to be one book which takes you back to the beginning, tells you how it all came about. A prequel, if you like. This is it. But it is not only that, it is a good story in its own right. There are some great characters Lady Anna is a dream but more than this, in some fine writing, we witness a proud man reduced to the rank of slave - which is tantamount to being a thing - and not just a slave, but a eunuch, and therefore in people's minds, sexless: a thing, indeed. How does such a man cope with being a thing?
Recommended, even if you have not read the first three books in the series: after reading this, you will want to.
JM
