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SusannaG

SusannaG - Confessions of a Crazy Cat Lady

Just another GR refugee.  Other than that, I had a stroke in 2004, and read almost anything I can get my hands on, though I have a particular weakness for history, mystery, and historical fiction.

Currently reading

Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition
Paul Watson
Progress: 6 %
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
Ed Yong
Progress: 40 %
Wizard's First Rule
Terry Goodkind
Progress: 49 %
Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant
Tracy Borman
Progress: 14 %
Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life
Helen Czerski
Progress: 20 %
The Hanover Square Affair
Ashley Gardner
Progress: 10 %
Medieval Tastes: Food, Cooking, and the Table (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)
Beth Archer Brombert, Massimo Montanari
Progress: 10 %
Scars of Independence: America's Violent Birth
Holger Hoock
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari
Progress: 9 %
Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years
John Guy
Progress: 20/512 pages

Death Ex Machina

Death Ex Machina (An Athenian Mystery) - Gary Corby

Death Ex Machina is the fifth novel in the series set in classical Athens (I believe the year is 458 BC), the Athens of Pericles and so many other famous ancient Athenians, some of whom are characters in this novel.  (Gary Corby, the author, marks them with an asterisk next to their names in his dramatis personae at the front.)

 

This time Nicolaos (reputedly the only private investigator in Athens) gets from Pericles the case of the haunted theater.  The time of Athens' great dramatic festival in honor of the god Dionysos is quickly approaching, and the actors and stage crew on Sophocles' tragedy Sisyphus are convinced both the play (they will refer to it only as "the Corinthian Play" - similarity to modern actors' superstitions about "the Scottish Play" fully intended!) and the theater are cursed, haunted by the ghost of Thespis, the first actor, now dead some fifty years.  They are refusing to rehearse, and the integrity of the dramatic festival is threatened.

 

This venture in the series features spooked stage hands, competitive actors, obsessed fans, the new scandalous drink in town (beer), the professional mourning industry, and why you don't want rats living in your thatched roof.  As well as murder, of course!

 

I enjoyed this one as much as all the other books in the series - I had a fun spree of a read.