Gary Corby. (2015). Death Ex Machina. Soho Press.

Gary Corby. 2015. Death Ex Machina. Soho Press.

Gary Corby, Death Ex Machina. Soho Press, 2015.

Gary Corby. Death Ex Machina. Soho Press, 2015.

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Death Ex Machina

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1. • value: Ancient Greece
2. • value: Mythology
3. • value: Theater
4. • value: Historical
5. • value: light hearted
6. • value: Humor
7. • value: ghost
8. • value: Mystery and Suspense
9. • value: Fiction
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14. • value: mysteries
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16. • value: Athens
17. • value: mystery and thrillers
18. • value: History
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21. • value: Hellenic
22. • value: amateur sleuth
23. • value: historical mystery
24. • value: detective novels
25. • value: cozy mysteries
26. • value: mysteries and thrillers
27. • value: crime books
28. • value: mystery books
29. • value: Murder mystery books
30. • value: soho crime 25
31. • value: potboiler
32. • value: mystery novels
33. • value: mystery thriller suspense
34. • value: historical fiction novels
35. • value: historical fiction books

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Corby, Gary
   • bioText: Gary Corby lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and two daughters. He blogs at A Dead Man Fell from the Sky, on all things ancient, Athenian, and mysterious. He is the author of four other critically acclaimed Athenian mysteries: The Pericles Commission, The Ionia Sanction, Sacred Games, The Marathon Conspiracy, and The Singer from Memphis.
   • name: Gary Corby

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publishDate

2015-05-19T00:00:00-04:00

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title

Death Ex Machina

fullDescription

A theatrical murder shocks ancient Athens, in this mystery that “manages to effortlessly integrate laugh-out-loud humor into a fairly clued puzzle” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
 
Athens, 459 BC: It’s the time of the Great Dionysia, the largest arts festival of the ancient world, held each year in honor of Dionysos, the god of wine. But there’s a problem: A ghost is haunting Athens’s grand theater. Nicolaos and the priestess Diotima, his clever partner in sleuthing (and now in matrimony), are hired to exorcise the ghost, but secretly suspect that a human saboteur is operating behind the scenes.
 
Then, one of the actors is found hanged from the machine used to carry actors through the air when they play the part of gods. It’s quite a dramatic murder, and as Nico and Diotima dig into the actor’s past, they discover enough suspects to fill a theater. As the festival approaches and pressure mounts on all sides, can they hunt down the killer in time? Or will they simply have to hope for a deus ex machina?
 

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reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: San Jose Mercury News
   • content: "Corby blends the history lesson so well into the story that you won't even need a spoonful of sugar."
2. • premium: False
   • source: Booklist, Starred Review
   • content: "This fifth mystery in the series moves from shock to shock, each one amplified by the fact that every prank and accident is painted on the scenery wall onstage almost immediately afterward. Corby is adept at delineating ancient Greece without sounding professorial. This works on every level."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
   • content: "Corby again manages to effortlessly integrate laugh-out-loud humor into a fairly clued puzzle."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Gumshoe Review
   • content: "Exciting, intriguing and erotic."
5. • premium: False
   • source: Mysterious Reviews
   • content: "Death Ex Machina is an entertaining entry in this historical series. The characters are nicely developed, and Nicolaos and Diotma are engaging as a couple. There is a lot of history here, much of it seamlessly introduced into the story and supportive of the time and place."
6. • premium: False
   • source: Library Journal
   • content: "Peppered with fascinating details about theater history and the Hellenic origins of theatrical lore. Corby's sixth series outing will please fans of mysteries set in ancient Greece, especially those written by Anna Apostolou and Marilyn Todd."
7. • premium: False
   • source: Kittling Books
   • content: "Corby knows how to create a page-turning mystery, and he certainly knows how to infuse his encyclopedic knowledge of ancient Greece seamlessly into his story."
8. • premium: False
   • source: Booklist, Starred Review
   • content: "Corby serves up a bubbly cocktail of clear history, contemporary wit, and heart-stopping action."
9. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
   • content: "Corby integrates the political intrigue of the day with fair-play plotting and welcome doses of humor. Fans of Steven Saylor's Gordianus novels will be enthralled."
10. • premium: False
    • source: Shelf Awareness
    • content: "Gary Corby has managed an unlikely feat with his series . . . he's written mysteries that combine funny characters and intriguing crimes with accurate history . . . The Marathon Conspiracy is never dull . . . The escapades of the detective will keep readers laughing, while the history lesson will leave them feeling a little bit smarter."
11. • premium: False
    • source: Open Letters Monthly
    • content: "Every new volume further highlights the tricky thing Corby so consistently manages to create: comedic mysteries that still have heft . . . In the manner of what Lindsey Davis and David Wishart give readers for ancient Rome, Corby presents an ancient Greek world that's vibrantly, gawkishly alive."
12. • premium: False
    • source: The Sydney Morning Herald
    • content: "A fast-paced, enjoyable, murder mystery that will make readers laugh and think in equal measure."
13. • premium: False
    • source: Kelli Stanley, award-winning author of City of Dragons
    • content: "Corby has not only made Greek history accessible--he's made it first-rate entertainment."
14. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from March 30, 2015
      In Australian author Corby’s superior fifth whodunit set in ancient Greece (after 2014’s The Marathon Conspiracy), the city of Athens is preparing to host the Great Dionysia, “the largest and most important arts festival in the world.” But the success of the event is in doubt after a series of accidents on the set of Sophocles’s play Sisyphus. The cast members believe this is the work of a ghost. Pericles, the city’s most powerful man, asks Nicolaos, his inquiry agent, to get rid of the ghost. Unfortunately, not long after Nico arranges for an exorcism ritual, one of the actors is murdered, suspended from the machine designed to hold the character of Thanatos, the god of death, in midair during the performance. Under pressure to find the killer quickly as the festival start date looms, Nico resorts to a clever and amusing ploy to buy more time. Corby again manages to effortlessly integrate laugh-out-loud humor into a fairly clued puzzle. Agent: Janet Reid, FinePrint Literary.

15. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      May 1, 2015
      

      Nicolaos, Athens's only professional investigator, is hired by Pericles to find out who is sabotaging the Theater of Dionysos during the Great Dionysia, the largest arts festival in the ancient world. Masks have been destroyed and people injured. The actors believe the ghost of the great actor Thespis is haunting the amphitheater, but as Nico and his wife, Diotima, high priestess of Athena, investigate, they suspect a more human culprit. Someone is trying to halt the production of Sisyphus, King of Corinth, a play written by Sophocles. And when an actor is killed, the stakes rise. VERDICT Peppered with fascinating details about theater history and the Hellenic origins of theatrical lore, Corby's sixth series outing (after The Marathon Conspiracy) will please fans of mysteries set in ancient Greece, especially those written by Anna Apostolou and Marilyn Todd.

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

16. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from May 1, 2015
      Crisis, a word that comes to us straight from the Greek, defines this historical theatrical mystery set in fifth-century-BCE Athens. The Great Dionysia, the annual festival honoring Dionysus, is about to begin. Central to the festival is the Theater of Dionysus, where plays are performed to please the reveling but moody god. Unfortunately, ghost sightings in the theater are freaking out everyone involved. If the plays are badly performed, who knows what punishments Dionysus might wreak on the city. The statesman Pericles once again calls upon young Nicolaos, his sleuth on hire, to expel the ghost from the theater (or convince the actors he's done so). Nicolaos quickly suspects that the acts of sabotage are being committed by a human, not a spirit. Then one of the actors is found hanging from the god machine during a rehearsal of Sophocles' Sisyphus. This fifth mystery in the series moves from shock to shock, each one amplified by the fact that every prank and accident is painted on the scenery wall onstage almost immediately afterward. Corby is adept at delineating ancient Greece without sounding professorial. Having Nicolaos as a first-person narrator helps; he's the ideal tour guide to the theater and the city around it. The characters are a mix of fictional and actual, with the latter including Pericles, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and the child Socrates, who drives everyone crazy with his questions. This works on every level.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

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A theatrical murder shocks ancient Athens, in this mystery that “manages to effortlessly integrate laugh-out-loud humor into a fairly clued puzzle” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
 
Athens, 459 BC: It’s the time of the Great Dionysia, the largest arts festival of the ancient world, held each year in honor of Dionysos, the god of wine. But there’s a problem: A ghost is haunting Athens’s grand theater. Nicolaos and the priestess Diotima, his clever partner in sleuthing (and now in matrimony), are hired to exorcise the ghost, but secretly suspect that a human saboteur is operating behind the scenes.
 
Then, one of the actors is found hanged from the machine used to carry actors through the air when they play the part of gods. It’s quite a dramatic murder, and as Nico and Diotima dig into the actor’s past, they discover enough suspects to fill a theater. As the festival approaches and...

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2. • code: FIC022060
   • description: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Historical
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   • description: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Cozy / General