Mon 14 Sep 2020
A Mystery Review by Ray O’Leary: MARGARET DOODY – Aristotle Detective.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[3] Comments
MARGARET DOODY – Aristotle Detective. Bodley Head, UK, hardcover, 1978. Harper, US, hardcover, 1980. Penguin, paperback, 1981.
Stephanos, a young Athenian and ex-pupil .of Aristotle, is taking a morning walk when he hears cries coming from the house of a wealthy neighbor named Boutades, who is shortly thereafter discovered with an arrow in his throat. A few days later, Stephanos’ cousin Philemon, who is in exile for having killed a man in a tavern brawl, is accused of the murder.
As Philemon’s nearest relative, Stephanos must defend him in the ancient Greek equivalent of a trial. Naturally, considering the title of the book, he goess to his old mentor for help in clearing his cousin’s name.
An interesting and entertaining excursion into ancient Greek culture, with an intriguing mystery and a lot of information about the Athenian legal system passed painlessly and pleasantly along to the reader.
The Aristotle and Stephanos series —
1. Aristotle Detective (1978)
2. Aristotle and Poetic Justice (2002)
3. Aristotle and the Secrets of Life (2003)
aka Aristotle and the Mystery of Life
4. Poison in Athens (2004)
5. Mysteries in Eleusis (2005)
6. Aristotle and the Egyptian Murders (2010)
7. A Cloudy day in Babylon (2013)
Short Story:
Aristotle and the Fatal Javelin (1980)
From Wikipedia: “Margaret Anne Doody (born September 21, 1939) is a Canadian author of historical detective fiction and feminist literary critic. She is professor of literature at the University of Notre Dame, and helped found the PhD in Literature Program at Notre Dame, and served as its director from 2001-2007.”
September 14th, 2020 at 10:28 am
With that 24 year gap between books 1 and 2, I had no idea that there was more than one book in the series. And without Ray’s review to start me looking, I probably never would have known!
September 14th, 2020 at 7:51 pm
I wonder if the greater popularity of the historical mysteery later on led her to revive the idea, or if perhaps she retired and had more time to write them?
September 14th, 2020 at 8:03 pm
I was wondering about that as well, but I suspect the latter. We’d have to check her academic resume out on this, but the first book could have been written when she was first starting out, the last few when she no longer had all the job responsibilities it looks like she had.