Pillars of Blood

Polydektos was once a great general, the pride of the Athenian people.
Now, after the death of his son Socos in battle, he has fallen into a life of debauchery.
While his wife Kephissa and his daughter Kyra wait at home, he spends his days at the court house, passing guilty verdicts on innocent men for no reason other than his own unhappiness.
He spends his nights with his two young lovers, the slave girl Gala, and his ward, seventeen year old Talaemenes, a strong and capable lad devoted to Polydektos.
After a night of drinking and debauchery, Talaemenes and Polydektos return to this family villa to find everyone inside has been slaughtered.
The slaves have been gassed.
The Metics have had their throats cut.
His beautiful wife and daughter have been dismembered in their beds.
Strangely, there is no blood at the scene, despite the massacre.
Polydektos is rendered mute with his grief, so when his own nephew accuses him of the murder of his wife and daughter, he is unable to defend himself in court. It falls to Talaemenes to speak for the two of them.
But once the verdict is read, the search for the real killers begins, a search that will have priestesses whispering in his ear, as his old friend Sokrates joins forces with Polydektos to figure out once and for all, what happened to his family.
But will that answer bring him peace, or open up new wounds?
Praise for Pillars of Blood
'a thrilling portrayal of Ancient Greece' - Richard Foreman
Alexander Arrowsmith has had a lifelong fascination with Ancient Greece; its myths and its culture. It is a country he loves and has visited on many occasions. This the first in his series of historical crime novels set in those times.