Mary Reed

"Feline felonies by Ruth Rendell, Lilian Jackson Braun, Patricia Highsmith, and thirteen other modern masters of mystery"--Cover subtitle. Susu and the 8:30 ghost / Lilian Jackson Braun Miss Paisley's cat / Roy Vickers Arnold / Fred Hamlin Cat's-paw / Mary Reed The abominable house guest / Theodore Sturgeon The faithful cat / Patricia Moyes The lady wore black / Hugh B. Cave Hardrock / Gary Erickson The beast within / Margaret B. Maron The theft of the Mafia cat / Edward D. Hoch The old gray cat / Joyce Harrington The highwayman's hostage / Lillian de la Torre [Black Cat]( / Edgar Allan Poe Visitor to Mombasa / James Holding Ming's biggest prey / Patricia Highsmith Long live the queen / Ruth Rendell

In 548 CE Constantinople and Emperor Justinian, distraught from the death of Empress Theodora, has exiled John, the Lord Chamberlain. At the Church of the Holy Apostles, an Egyptian magician tries to raise the empress from the dead. As the unholy ceremony explodes into chaos, supposed demons vanish into the darkness with one of the city's holiest relics, a fragment of the shroud of the Virgin. Felix, Captain of the Palace Guard, is selected as John's successor. Already juggling his gambling debts, political maneuverings, and an ambitious new mistress, Felix is charged with finding the missing relic, as well. But before Felix's investigation even begins, someone deposits a corpse at his house. A botched attempt to dispose of the body leaves Felix looking suspect. To make matters worse, it seems as if half the city wants to possess the relic, see Felix dead--or both. If only Felix's friend, the shrewd John, were still in the city, but the former Lord Chamberlain has already sailed for Greece. Now Felix enters a fight for his very survival, a crucible in which he cannot cannot tell friend from foe--or worldly dangers from the supernatural.

Emperor Justinian's former Lord Chamberlain, John, receives an urgent message from an old friend summoning him to Rome, but once there, he finds his friend vanished and the mysteries mounting.

"John, former Lord Chamberlain to Emperor Justinian, has been exiled from Constantinople to a rustic estate John has long-owned in Greece, not far from where he grew up. But exile proves no escape from mystery and mayhem. The residents of nearby Megara make it plain John and his family are unwelcome intruders. His overseer proves corrupt. What of the other staff--and his neighbors? Before long, John finds himself accused of blasphemy and murder. Now a powerless outsider, he's on his own, investigating and annoyingly hampered by the ruthless and antagonistic City Defender who serves Megara as both law enforcer and judge. Plus there's that corrupt estate overseer, a shady pig farmer, a servant's unwelcome suitor, a wealthy merchant who spends part of his time as a cave-dwelling hermit, and the criminals and cutthroats populating such a seedy port as Megara. Complicating matters further are two childhood friends whose lives have taken very different paths, plus the stepfather John hated. John realizes that in Megara, the solution to murder does not lie in the dark alleys where previous investigations have taken him, but in a far more dangerous place--his own past. Can he find his way out of the labyrinth of lies and danger into which he has been thrust before disaster strikes and exile turns into execution?"--

In sixth-century Constantinople, eight-year old twins are the key to Emperor Justinian's plans to resurrect the crumbling Roman Empire, but when one of them is murdered, John the Eunuch is charged with the task of finding the guilty party.