It's 539 AD, and John the Lord Chamberlain finds his investigations hampered by squabbling courtiers, servants with social ambitions, an eccentric host, and an egotistic inventor - not to mention a herd of prophesying goats and a protective whale. The Mithran Anatolius and the excubitor captain Felix only add to John's worries when they fall under the spell of two ambitious women. Can the trio avoid Theodora's wrath as they work to protect a child and stop a heartless killer? Does the solution lie within the villa where all have assembled, back in Constantinople, or in some other world altogether?
Mary Reed and Eric Mayer, already known for their historical short stories which have appeared in the anthologies Royal Whodunnits and Shakespearean Dectectives, and in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, have written four previous short stories featuring John the Eunuch with a fifth due out this Fall. Mary has written scripts for the PBS radio program Weather Notebook and been a featured guest on the PBS program “What D’you Know?” Eric is a former Golden Quill Award winner from the Pennsylvania Newspapers Publishers Association. One for Sorrow is their first full length novel. They live in Pennsylvania.