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.

TWO FOR JOY: It is AD 537 and Constantinople is a city simmering on the edge of chaos, a maelstrom of creeds, cults and cultures. At is heart lies the Great Palace and the imperial court of the Roman Empire, a seething knot of ambition, competition, intrigue and treachery.

John the Eunuch, Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor Justinian, is faced with a particularly byzantine problem: he must discover why three of Constantinople's holy stylites have burned to death as they stand atop their pillars – just as a heretical preacher foretold they would. The hand of God or mortal? John must find out before hell is unleashed.