Five for Silver

DEATH IN BYZANTIUM: At the heart of what is left of the Roman Empire, lies a city simmering with intrigue & treachery. Amid this maelstrom stands John, a slave who has risen to become the right hand of Justinian, the greatest of Byzantium's emperors. With violence and murder commonplace, it is John's skills as an investigator that the Emperor prizes the most.

FIVE FOR SILVER: The year is 542 and plague ravages Constantinople. Amidst the chaos, John the Lord Chamberlain is on the trail of a murderer. Peter, John's elderly servant, has an angelic vision telling him a close friend has been murdered, and asks John to find the killer. It transpires that Peter's old friend has indeed been stabbed, but the victim was not what he appeared. In a city being emptied by plague, it's hard to find evidence, but John establishes a possible connection. Only a man of unbending principle could hope to find justice in a terrified city where the good and the bad are struck down indiscriminately, where disorder rules, and where witnesses may die before they can be questioned.