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The Cybelene Conspiracy

A Getorius and Arcadia Mystery, Book 2

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The Cybelene Conspiracy

By: Albert Noyer
Narrated by: Fleet Cooper
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About this listen

Surgeon Getorius Asterius, his wife Arcadia, the eunuch archpriest of a pagan fertility cult, the female head of a heretical Arian church, and an ambitious senator in league with a Chinese merchant: These are the prime movers in this mystery set in Ravenna, Italy, in A.D. 440. When Getorius is summoned to examine the castrated body of a youth found by Thecla in her Arian church, who is the sobbing "Vestal Virgin" nearby? Is there any connection between this crime and the fact that a senator is smuggling counterfeit Western coins to the Eastern Empire, and contraband Chinese products back to Ravenna?

A coded message leads to a secret tunnel and the sinister temple of Cybele, whose devotees are self-mutilated eunuchs. In a stunning climax, the conspirators try to escape Ravenna, planning to sell their products in Egypt, but failing to recognize the deadly nature of what they are carrying.…

©2005 Albert Noyer (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Historical Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction China
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I was looking forward to an historically based mystery with this book. The storyline was fairly interesting and convoluted and probably a great deal of research had gone into the medical aspects but the whole was spoiled for me by the narrator. Fleet Cooper affected a very strange form of the "Queen's English" while he narrated the story where emphases were placed unnaturally; for example "thee"s instead of "the" and overly obvious "a"s where it was unnessessary, hindering the meaning of the sentence. The different characters were well differentiated and skillfully voiced but even one or two had this strange form of speaking. It strikes me that its what an American might imagine 1950s BBC English should sound like! I found it very distracting and towards rhe end of the book I had almost got to the point where I was counting how many "thee"s were popping up in each paragraph instead of hearing the story. The author is no Lindsay Davis and neither of the main characters were a patch on Marcus Didius Falco. I got to the point where I didn't really care much what was happening to Getorius or his wife Arcadia! This might not bother you so do listen to the sample before you buy, but in my opinion, if you are looking for an authentic historical chunk of fiction with likeable protagonists, don't bother with this book, go back to Lindsay Davis and his Falco series.

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