Simla, 1922.

The summer capital of the British Raj is fizzing with the energy of the jazz age. When Commander Joe Sandilands's travelling companion, a Russian opera singer, is shot dead at his side in the back of the Governor's car, he finds himself plunged into a murder investigation.

Alexander the Great faces the challenge of the Persian 'Centaur';

It is now 334 AD, and Alexander has smashed the Persian armies at the battle of the Granicus and is roaming the Western Persian Empire like a hungry predator, living up to his nickname of 'the Wolf of Macedon'. Arriving in one of his prizes, the great city of Ephesus, the success of his campaign is threatened by a series of violent murders brought about by a high-ranking Persian spy known only as 'the Centaur'. Worse, one of Alexander's old tutors, Leonidas, is found floating face down in a stagnant pond at the House of Medusa - and this doesn't look like an accident, since the House of Medusa is linked with a guild of assassins who formerly flourished in Ephesus. So once again Alexander's friend and physician, Telamon, must set about unravelling this swirling mass of blood-strewn mysteries, this time working hand in hand with the king's eerie Master of Secrets Aristander. As always one of the biggest obstacles is the volatile and unpredictable nature of Alexander himself, a consummate actor whose lust for power and glory matches the carnage and intrigue that dog his footsteps like the Furies themselves.

In the third magnificent volume in this mystery series it is 334 BC, and Alexander and his troops have crossed into Asia. Marching south he has conquered all in his path, but he and his enemies all know that the great prize is the city of Halicarnassus, strategically important and with fortifications to make any attacker despair. Alexander’s court is set up close to the city, and his physician and old friend Telamon is there. Even as Alexander prepares for one of the most dramatic confrontations in the ancient world, a series of brutal killings begins, proving that the Persians have infiltrated the court. With his lord facing the fight of his life, Telamon must go through ‘the Gates of Hell’ to find the traitors.

When a neighbouring house suddenly blows up during a dinner party, and a child disappears in the aftermath, Sarah Tucker - a young, married woman, bored and unhappy with her life - becomes obsessed with trying to find her.
Her attempts at investigation, fired initially by frustration and curiosity, reveal that people long thought dead are still among the living, while the living are joining the dead. She's soon left wondering whether she has really ever known anybody or anything at all.
What begins in suburban south Oxford ends on a remote and inhospitable Scottish island, where the hunt takes Sarah away from her lacklustre marriage and involves her with a troubled ex-soldier, who himself is being tracked by murderous and apparently official forces. Life for Sarah is suddenly anything but dull. This intriguing first novel is fast-moving and engaging, with a dash of quite surreal humour.

'Good characterisation, dialogue and a well-paced narrative make this confident first novel frighteningly plausible. 'Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
'Seldom does a debut grip as much . . . . Intelligent, articulate, an enthralling read.' Shots

Mick Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and educated there and at Balliol College, Oxford. He lives in Oxford but commutes into London. Down Cemetery Road was his highly acclaimed first novel.