Still Waters

High Priestess Iliona #3

by Marilyn Todd

A High Priestess Iliona Ancient Greek Mystery - For High Priestess Iliona, unparalleled happiness would mean staying in Sparta, but Lysander, head of the secret police, needs her help to track down some stolen gold. The trail leads to a new lakeside posting station – which proves to be a hotbed of adultery and lies. Iliona’s arrival coincides with the seemingly accidental death of an Olympic wrestler, but she soon discovers that out there a secret shared means a death warrant signed, and that betrayal can come from the unlikeliest of sources . . .

Genres: Mystery

224 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2010

About the author

MARILYN TODD lives with her husband on a French hilltop, surrounded by vineyards, châteaux and vines. As well as sixteen critically acclaimed historical thrillers, she's a prolific writer of short stories, most of which are crime, but range from commercial women's fiction to comic fantasy and all points in between. When she isn't killing people, Marilyn enjoys cooking. Which is pretty much the same thing.

Reviews

[Clemens Schoonderwoert · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Should Read as 4.5 Stars!**

Read this book in 2012, and its the 3rd volume of the wonderful "High Priestess Iliona Mystery" mini-series.

The year is still 466 BC , and although Iliona likes to stay in Sparta, but Lysander, Head of the Secret Police, needs her help in tracking down stolen gold, and so she must leave Sparta and end up at a posting station.

Over at this posting station. a hotbed of adultery and lies, Iliona must somehow discover where that gold has gone, when all of a sudden an Olympic wrestler is found dead, and that will prove a significant occurrence.

Iliona soon discovers also that a secret shared is a death warrant signed, and that she needs to be on the alert for betrayal from the unlikeliest sources, and that she must try very hard to remain alive if she wants to solve this case.

What is to follow is an intriguing and thrilling Greek mystery, in which Spartan violence and death go hand in hand, but still our main protagonist, High Priestess Iliona, is doing her utmost and daring in investigating this case, and in the end will come up with the culprit of these crimes after a hectic but very satisfying plot.

Highly recommended, for this another splendid Greek mystery addition to this great mini-series, and that's why I like to call this episode: "A Captivating Still Waters"!

[Jane · Rating 1 out of 5]

This really promised something: a mystery set in ancient Greece with a Spartan priestess, Ilonia, and the head of the Krypteia [Secret Police], Lysander; the mysterious death of a famous athlete--possible sabotage of his chariot--and the theft of Macedonian gold. For a while, this was a page-turner, but it veered off from the mystery and became involved with folks living around a posting-station. It became more and more outlandish, with cardboard characters acting like 21st century people, and with casual dialogue, like you'd read in a novel taking place today. I was hoping this would be a gem but my hopes for it died with each page. I finally skimmed and peeked ahead at the solution. I really didn't care for any characters, especially Iliona, Jocasta, the helot physician, and Lysander. I'm sure glad I didn't waste my money on this one. I'll avoid others in this series. I'm still scratching my head as to why the library even bought it.

[Brittany Wouters · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, it wasn't bad...

I still think Jocasta should have been the main character- she gets plausibly yanked along on all these adventures, she could have been the investigator. Imagine Lysander blackmailing her because he suspects what she's up to- as a talented physician who gets scores of people flocking to her for their ailments, she'd be perfect! And she's always in the woods or the hills gathering plants; perfect cover for snooping. AND she'd never, ever be so stupid as to sleep with the guy who drugged her without a qualm.

Honestly Iliona, don't sleep with your blackmailer.

[Sumi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although not normally a fan of Ancient Greece, my views of a civilization's worth always being tempered by the status of women in that civilization, I found that I liked this book. It helped that the female lead was the typical anachronism that stories set in times past increasingly rely on. Independent, intelligent, sharp witted and sharp tongued she allows herself to be used as a cover for a Spartan secret police investigation and stumbles into a murder of her own. Nothing terribly remarkable about the story or the characters, but I'll check into the future volumes because the rumblings of a helot uprising has some great plot potential.