A Murder in Macedon

Rating:
Summary: Alexander Makes a 'Great' Character!
Review: Anna Apostolou takes us down History Lane in yet another of Paul Doherty's time-line mysteries, "A Murder in Macedon." And while Doherty's English historical mysteries are exciting, and informative, reading, Apostolou takes the Oliver Stone approach to revealing the vagaries of the past. (Apostolou is one of Doherty's pseudonyms.) It seems to be Stone's premise that "if you thought the real history was exciting, wait until you see how I dress it up." And much the same way, Apostolou takes us back to the time of Alexander the Great of Macedon. We find Alexander, troubled, quick-to-temper, and eager to be king in his own right, having to deal with the assassination of his father, Phillip, the Macedonian king. Between his own irreverences with his father and the plottings of his mother Olympias, whom Phillip has recently divorced in favor of a younger, more beautiful princess, there is reason for Alexander to feel that everyone will believe that he was involved in the assassination of his father. Apostolou introduces us to Hebrew twins Miriam and Simeon, both of whom Alexander trusts. Young Alexander is barely 20 and naturally, at first, fears his own life in the aftermath of the regicide. Indeed, as Shakespeare's Henry V said, "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." His friends come to his rescue. Apostolou introduces us to a number of plots, all plausible, of course. And it is at the hands of Miriam and Simeon that, ultimately, the "truth" is revealed. Basically, the story is exciting reading; however, historical scholars won't be quick to embrace the theories offered. For instance, Apostolou directly involves Demosthenes in the assassination. Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, did oppose Phillip's rule--and plans--for the conquered Athens and ultimately was exiled when Alexander later took over; however, no proof exists that he arranged for Phillip's death. And while, perhaps, it makes for intriguing reading, I have problems with fictional writers taking such liberties! Apostolou does cite her sources, to give the author some credit, of course. And, of course, the spellings of the names may alter, owing to different translators' versions. History should not be altered, or even managed, just to create an exciting story, however! Otherwise, happy reading. The story moves well and the author's presentation of the characters seems adequate in keeping with the whole intrigue. In fact, Alexander's portrayal seems partly in keeping with history. And, after all, when it comes to interpretation of character based upon historical research, Apostolou's opinion has to be a credible as anyone else's. There is the sequel, of course, as Apostolou concludes this novel without dispensing of Olympias, the quintessential "plotter and schemer." Some historians claim that Alexander later had her executed for her involvement in this, and other, nefarious acts. (She does not seem to be a person one would love to meet.) We'll have to wait to see how Apostolou takes care of her! This book ends, too, just as Alexander is getting ready to start his campaigns to conquer the known world. Further revelations--some might call it "manipulations--will come in the next installment titled "A Murder in Thebes."

Rating:
Summary: fast paced, and entertaining
Review: As a reader who has read books of various genre, I've come to the conclusion that a book should be first and above all entertaining. Isn't that the purpose of novels? We spend those 7 or 8 dollars on a book to kill some time, to get a little excitment and relief from normal day life, for fun, what ever. You don't read a book like "A Murder in Macedon" so that you can pick at little insignificant historical details. If you had wanted that, why don't you just take a Classic Civ class? Now that I have countered some of the criticism of the other reviewers, let me say why I enjoyed this book. Set in the fascinating time of 300~BC, Philip, King of Macedonia is assasinated. After that, all who is close to him falls under suspicion, including his divorced scheming wife, Olympias, his former buddy in arms, Antipater(what a name) and of course, the young heir apparent Alexander. But the task of investigating falls on the shoulders of Miriam. A Jewess and friend of Alexander. Personally, I found Miriam to be the most interesting of them all, she's got guts and wit, a captivating heroine. But being detective in this Greek court is not so easy, witnesses lie, or die, enemies of Alexander are bearing closer and clues seem to run in circles. Must not say more, I'll probably ruin the ending. My advice, read it and have fun, and forget about the historical accuracy. You'll enjoy it much more.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing mystery with historical setting
Review: Historical mysteries are all the rage now, and so we come to the murder of a king in Ancient Greece, replete with conspiracy, intrigue, and witchcraft. Such novels are harder to write than regular detective novels: in addition to the mystery needing to be good, the historical aspects need to be good also. Here the author succeeds reasonably well, and the result is a good book, worth reading if you're interested in Greek history or mysteries.

I had only a sketchy knowledge of the murder of Philip of Macedon prior to this book, but what I saw in the book was good. The king is killed during a public ceremony by one of his own guards, who is about to escape, but killed by the guards under circumstances that make it look as if he was never intended to escape at all. There's also another assassin who's been killed, further confusing things.

The detective protagonist is the most interesting character in the book, a Jewish woman whose brother is a scribe for the king himself. Once the king is dead, Alexander (soon to be the Great) asks the woman and her brother to look into the murder, and what she finds is fun and intriguing. There's a spurned wife who indulges in witchcraft, and [unintellegent] son who seems harmless but is looking for a suspicious knife, a crafty old general who's scheming for power, a pair of brothers who are pretenders to the throne, etc. All of these are suspects, and Miriam, must sort through them and figure out who might or might not have done it.

Miriam and her brother are interesting characters, and the solution is believable, if a bit far-fetched. I would recommend the book, and will be looking for the sequel.

Rating:
Summary: A Fanciful Solution for Philip's Murder.
Review: Historical novels are always a challenge for the authors.
Differently from a character creation in a normal novel, a historical character has to follow the specific personality as he or she is known in history.

Daily or circumstantial attitudes and dialogues, although not necessarily historical, has to follow the pattern expect based on the historical information we know about that specific personage.

Philip of Macedon murder is a unsolved mystery with many launched hypothesis.
I don't think that a historical novelist is free to invent outcomes to any historical event. This can give wrong idea to readers with not sufficient knowledge of the character or events being portrayed.
Two of the non-historical charaters of the book, Miriam and Simeon, seems completely unrealistic for the environment of Macedon.
Arridhaeus half brother od Alexander, was depicted more idiot than he probably was in reality.

I succeeded to reach the end of the book, because I always tried to do it. But, I must confess that it required a big dose of perseverance from myself.

Rating:
Summary: Flimsy characters, inaccuracies, ruin a promising novel
Review: I admit that I only read the first third of this book so can't really make a judgment on the plot, but I simply couldn't justify wasting my time reading the whole thing. Numerous minor historical inacuracies can be quite annoying but cannot, in themselves, ruin a book completely. What makes this novel unreadable for me is how utterly unbelievable the characters are. They do not seem like they could possibly be real people (as a good novel makes characters), which is ironic because, unlike those in most novels, they actually WERE. Alexander's idiot brother is quite affronting, as he seems to be constantly scratching his genitals. Miriam, who many reviewers seem to like, is completly unrealistic because woman were not allowed to run free as she did-- even in the "backward" kingdom of Macedon, women were greatly segregated from, and subserviant to, men. I could go on about Olympias's satanic character and her invented "divorce," but why beat a dead horse? I am probably quite spoiled by historical novels by fantastic authors like Mary Renault and am not really one to get into mysteries, but I am a self-proclaimed Alexander nut, and when a story about him does not excite me in the least, there is certainly something wrong with it.

Rating:
Summary: Short, but not sweet
Review: I am a real fan of Ancient Greece in fiction....and looked forward to reading this novel with a great deal of interest.

But while the premise is an excellent one...some ideas should be left as just that, ideas, or at least they should be presented to more capable hands.

Apart from the numerous historical inaccuracies...the references to the authors of this time read like name dropping...the story centers on the efforts of a Jewish maiden, Miriam, to uncover the identity of Phillip of Macedon's murderer, not on Alexander, and the entire story suffers from stilted conversations, contrived circumstances, and a lack of time spent researching the actual daily lives of these people.

The characters are mere caricatures of the actual persons involved in the story, and even the 'invented' characters suffer from a serious lack of development and 'fleshing out'. The revelation of a character's involvement in the murder at the end is anti-climactic, as the character was never really given much importance in the story.

The author's note at the end attempts to justify the contents with claims that there is historical evidence to support most of the action, and the speculations made are at least partly grounded in fact. That part I can accept...but while the story centers on a murder...the greatest crime of the novel is the novel itself. It suffers greatly from lack of actual time spent researching the time period, and only the few facts and suppositions gleaned by the author prior to writing it that appear in the novel in no way qualify it as good historical fiction.

Nice try, Anna Apostolou, but many have done it better.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting premise, unfortunately it's not a very good read
Review: I sat down and read the majority of this book on a beach in Greece, and I'd have to say that one of this book's major failings is its inability to capture the atmosphere of that land. The assasination of Phillip does make for an intriguing topic in historical fiction, however this novels starts off well but then proceeds to bumble through a muddy plotline with thinly sketched characters. Thankfully, I had plenty of Robert Graves and Steven Saylor as well as non-fiction history books to accompany me for the rest of my time in Greece. I'd love to see someone do really written and entertaining historical fiction set in the ancient Greek world.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating review history
Review: I've seen Phillip's tomb, and early next year I'm starting in Thessaloniki and following Alexander's trail through parts of Turkey. So, I'm reading everything I can get hold of on Alexander. I enjoyed both Alexander books by Apostolou. I also read the two Alexander books by P.C. Doherty. I noticed some of the language in the two series's is the same. I've never come across the phrase, "He pulled a face" before, so I speculated they were the same author. It turns out, that's true.

There have been a couple of negative reviews here from people insisting on historical accuracy and pointing out alleged flaws. OK. That's their right. Interestingly, the reviews on the Doherty side of the house are almost universally rave reviews.

Fascinating.

Rating:
Summary: Not historically accurate, but
Review: If I'd wanted historical accuracy I wouldn't be buying fiction. I liked the characters, especially Miriam, I liked the setting, and I liked the mystery. The solution given is quite plausible and, yes, I am going to read the sequel!

Rating:
Summary: Interesting topic, questionable characterizations
Review: This book deals with one of the great mysteries in history - who killed Philip II, father of Alexander the Great. My biggest complaint with this novel is the author's note. The author states that Alexander's character is very much as found in the historical documents; "rather shy, self-effacing, suffering from panic attacks, and very shy of women." Not quite. Every ancient source portrays him as gregarious, prone to excessive ego and ambition, incredibly bold and often reckless. There is no indication he was shy around women, rather that he was somewhat disinterested in them sexually until his mid-20's. Alexander had conquered the known world by his 30th birthday, and one has to question the author's opinion of his character.

For those who wish to make up their minds for themselves about Alexander's character, I recommend A.B. Bosworth's excellent, "Conquest and Empire, the Reign of Alexander the Great," available, of course, from Amazon.com.