ARISTOTLE DETECTIVE (Classic Mystery Fiction)

Athens, 332BC - an unhappy city under the rule of the Macedonian 'barbarian' Alexander the Great. In the midst of this unrest, Boutades, an eminent citizen, is found brutally murdered. Suspicion falls heavily on young Philemon, and, by Athenian law, his cousin Stephanos is elected to defend his name in court. In desperation, Stephanos seeks assistance from Aristotle, his former mentor - and Aristotle turns Detective. The young, inexperienced boy and the great philosopher form a classically uneven partnership. Their efforts culminate in the gripping trial scene when Stephanos uses all the powers of rhetoric and oratory instilled in him by Aristotle to clear his family's name of this bloody murder...

ARISTOTLE AND THE FATAL JAVELIN (in Mystery Guild Anthology)

This time Aristotle is called upon to solve what looks like an accident: a man is killed by a javelin during training. But it's not an accident. Its murder. And the javelin thrower is not the guilty one …

ARISTOTLE AND POETIC JUSTICE

330BC: it is the year that Alexander the Great sacked Persepolis and won the greatest fortune the world had ever known. The night of the Silent Dinner when Athens placates the spirits of the dead passes with a creeping mist accompanied by eerie portents and a strange disappearance. Stephanos, son of Nikiarkhos and his teacher, the philosopher Aristotle, are drawn into solving the perplexing abduction case of Anthia, the heiress of a prominent silver merchant. Someone has snatched her from her home, but what is the motive: rape, a forced marriage or murder? All that is known is that the abductor and the heiress are on the road to Delphi and its ancient oracle. Stephanos and Aristotle pursue them but along the way there are plenty of distractions: it's spring time and the country is full of reborn life, the thought of romance and marriage is never far from young Stephanos' mind, and rumours of mysterious strangers passing in the night abound, of disguises and swapping of identity. Then the actuality of murder shatters the idyll. It seems that there is a psychopath on the road pursuing abductor and heiress. But who the abductor is and who the murderer is are mysteries that only Aristotle with the aid of the Delphian oracle will be able to solve.

ARISTOTLE AND THE SECRETS OF LIFE

The year is 330 B.C. Macedonian Alexander the Great has conquered Asia Minor, but with his armies now far from Athens, supporters of Athenian independence are beginning to agitate and plot against him. The climate is especially dangerous for foreigners, like Aristotle who taught Alexander the Great when he was a teenager, and those suspected of befriending foreigners, like Stephanos. A series of threats persuade the two that they had better leave the mainland for a while. Both find acceptable excuses: Aristotle must transport a sick student home to Rhodes, while Stephanos needs to locate a relative of his bride-to-be, Philomela, to clear up an inheritance dispute. With a varied cast of travelers they set sail across the Aegean to the sacred Isle of Delos, to Mykonos and beyond to the coast of Asia Minor. There they will soon be caught up in investigating conspiracy and murder. But first they need to survive life on the high seas where storms and piracy honour no man, not even the greatest philosopher who ever lived.

POISON IN ATHENS

It is the autumn of 330 BC, and three law cases are exciting Athens. Ergokles' case against the wealthy Orthoboulos for malicious wounding seems to come out well for the dignified man, but shortly afterwards he is found dead of poison, evidently hemlock. His second wife is accused of the crime, and her trial for poisoning sets Athens at odds, as sympathies divide. Her stepson is her greatest enemy, and seems sure that she has done the deed, but there are other candidates. Meanwhile, the most beautiful woman in Athens, Phryne, is accused of impiety, a charge that can carry the death penalty. Stephanos, in treating himself to brother visits as she tries to recover not only from his wound but from having killed a man, gets close to danger, and his position as a witness could damage his prospects of marriage. Misogyny, political wrath, and lack of judgment bring affairs to a boiling point, stimulating Aristotle to intervene lest the trial of the stepmother break Athens into fragments. He endeavours to solve the mystery with the help of Stephanos, and also with his assistant Theophrastos, who has made a special study of plant and thus of poisons.