As Lord Chamberlain, John spent his days counseling Emperor Justinian while passing the small hours of night in conversation with the solemn-eyed little girl depicted in a mosaic on his study wall. He never expected to meet her in a public square—or afterwards, to find her red-dyed corpse in a subterranean cistern. Had the mysterious woman truly been the model for the mosaic years before, as she claimed? Who was she? Who wanted her dead and why? The answers seem to lie among the denizens of the smoky streets of that quarter of Constantinople known as the Copper Market, where artisans, beggars, prostitutes, pillar saints, and exiled aristocrats struggle to survive within sight of the Great Palace and yet worlds distant. Before long, John suspects he is attempting to unravel not just a murder but also a plot against the empire.

The husband and wife team of Mary Reed and Eric Mayer began writing together in 1992, publishing several short stories in anthologies and in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. They were honored with the 2005 Glyph Award for Best Book Series and have been nominated for both the IPPY Best Mystery Award and the Bruce Alexander Historical Mystery Award. In 2003 the American Library Association's Booklist Magazine named their John the Eunuch novels as one of its four Best Little Known Series.