Death on Delos

Corby’s excellent seventh Athenian mystery (after 2016’s The Singer from Memphis) takes Nicolaos, the only private investigator in Athens; his pregnant priestess wife and investigative partner, Diotima; and Athenian statesman Pericles to the island of Delos: the repository of the treasury of the Delian League, a NATO-like mutual defense organization of independent city-states. Diotima’s plans to dedicate holy offerings to Artemis and Apollo are overshadowed by Pericles’s announcement that he intends to take the treasure back to Athens to protect it from the Persians, whose reconquest of Egypt makes them a more serious threat to Delos and other southern islands in the league. The Delians object vigorously, and Pericles’s efforts to overcome their resistance is complicated by a murder, which Nicolaos and Diotima must solve—and quickly. Once again, Corby combines an ingenious whodunit with convincing period detail. This humorous and educational ancient historical series gets better and better with each entry. Agent: Janet Reid, FinePrint Literary. (July)