Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Blind Eye
High priestess Iliana series #1

by Marilyn Todd



      The latest tale about Claudia Seferius? No, this is a brand new series about Spartan high priestess Iliana and her reluctant involvement with the Krypteia, or secret police. The commander, Lysander, catches her aiding "deserters", so if she doesn’t want to lose her position as priestess of river god Eurotas (and possibly her life) she must play along. Her first assignment is to impersonate the high priestess of Alphaeus and clear Sparta’s name following a recent regrettable incident when the Spartans were set up to look like the guilty party. This necessitates a trip to Sicily, but somebody in her Krypteia group is a spy, and why do the locals seem convinced a Cyclops is hiding out in the hills and murdering people?

As I opened the first page, I thought: whatever else I say about this book, my review would open with praise to the author for writing a book set in the world of Ancient Greece which has nothing to do with Alexander the Great! See, I always said it is possible to do this, and now somebody has taken the plunge and done it. This aside, anybody who enjoys the misadventures of Claudia will also enjoy this book. There are similarities galore, so you can certainly tell it’s written by the same person but it is an entertaining tale all the same. Part of this appeal is the sheer novelty of reading about Spartans, helots, unfamiliar rituals, Syracuse and the Krypteia. I don’t know enough about the period to be able to comment on the accuracy of the portrayal of these things, but I did enjoy reading about them. The start of a new series I hope. I, for one, would look forward to book two with even more pleasure if some of the similarities were rendered less ...similar.

The Book

Severn House
October 2007
Hardback
9780727865564
Historical Crime [466BC, Sparta and Syracuse]
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Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Rachel A Hyde
Reviewed 2007
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© 2007 MyShelf.com