Tuesday, June 9, 2015

"Death Ex Machina"

Gary Corby is the author of the Athenian Mystery series, starring Nicolaos, his girlfriend Diotima, and his irritating twelve year old brother Socrates.

The books in order are The Pericles Commission, The Ionia Sanction, Sacred Games, The Marathon Conspiracy, and the newest addition, Death Ex Machina.

Corby applied the Page 69 Test to Death Ex Machina and reported the following:
I'm afraid life isn't getting any easier for the only private agent in ancient Athens, but at least he has a chance to get into show biz.

It’s the time of the Great Dionysia, the most important arts festival of the ancient world, and a crisis is well underway, because a ghost is haunting the theater. Already too many things have gone wrong and the show promises to be a disaster.

Page 69 sees a wet actor join Nico and Diotima in sheltering from the rain. The actor is a man named Romanos.
“What are you doing out in this weather?” I asked him.

“I was at the theater,” he said. “I was rehearsing the new third actor in his lines.”
The actors are rehearsing for Sisyphus, King of Corinth, written and directed by a fellow named Sophocles, who is becoming increasingly distraught at the state of his play.

This conversation is an important scene. Romanos has clues to offer and, more to the point, insights to offer about himself. He’s a foreigner, from the distant land of Phrygia, come to Athens to find work. Romanos’s greatest desire is to become a citizen of Athens.

Athens at this time had a problem all too familiar to modern western nations: an enormous influx of migrants. How Athens coped with immigration is one of the sub-plots of the story.

What clues have Nico and Diotima found? Will Romanos win his citizenship? You’ll have to read the story to find out!
Visit Gary Corby's blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Pericles Commission.

My Book, The Movie: The Pericles Commission.

My Book, The Movie: The Ionia Sanction.

The Page 69 Test: The Ionia Sanction.

The Page 69 Test: Sacred Games.

My Book, The Movie: Sacred Games.

The Page 69 Test: The Marathon Conspiracy.

My Book, The Movie: The Marathon Conspiracy.

Writers Read: Gary Corby.

My Book, The Movie: Death Ex Machina.

--Marshal Zeringue