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The Cybelene Conspiracy by Albert Noyer

A eunuch archpriest and an ambitious senator smuggle products from Chinathat will change Roman history in the west

A.D. 440, Ravenna Italy: Surgeon Getorius Asterius and his wife, Arcadia, are summoned to an Arian sect church, where Thecla has discovered the body of a castrated slave. Claudia, sob-bing nearby, proves to be a pregnant, epileptic “Vestal Virgin” recruited by Diotar, archpriest of an outlawed cult of the goddess Cybele. Palace Investigator Leudovald suspects revenge on a slave for impregnating a freewoman and arrests Claudia’s father, Virilo. Wealthy Senator Maximim, leasing Virilo’s galley Cybele, frees him to sail his exports to Dalmatia. Fearing arrest, Getorius stows away with Arcadia and discovers counterfeit Western coins being smuggled to the Eastern Empire in Maximin’s wool bales. Diotar, Claudia and two youths are on board, bound for a Cybelene temple. There an earthquake disrupts a frenzied fertility/castration ritual. On returning, reclusive Zhang Chen brings crates with Chinese markings¾secret products for Maximin. Arrested, Thecla is “accidentally” killed in detention, but Getorius finds her coded message, which reveals a hidden tunnel from her church. Where does it lead? What has Chen brought that could reverse a declining Roman Empire?

In a harrowing climax, the conspirators attempt escape on the Cybele, planning to sell one product in Egypt, yet failing to recognize the far more lethal nature of the other.

 The Toby Press / New Milford CT, and London UK

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“A fifth century Nick and Nora crack secret codes, enjoy an impromptu maritime adventure, and hang out with gladiators in their second mystery caper.

Ravenna, a.d. 440: Thecla, the salty female elder of the local Arian basilica, finds a beautiful young woman sobbing in a dark recess of her church near the body of a young man who appears to have been castrated¾ a diagnosis confirmed by surgeon/sleuth Getorius Asterius (The Secundus Papyrus, 2003). Getorius’s take-charge wife Arcadia, accompanying him as usual, helps transport the girl, who says her name is Cybele (or is it Sybil?) to safety at their home. They soon learn that she’s a Vestal Virgin actually named Claudia who’s three months pregnant. Her father, bullish Gaius Quintus Virilo, is master of the merchant galley Cybele. His brusque manner, which ruffles Arcadia’s feathers when he comes to whisk away his daughter, and an odd dispute between Getorius and city officials over the nature of the murder weapon, lead the couple to suspect a cover-up. Are the unpopular Thecla and her Arian sect being set up? The investigation turns into an odyssey complete with a voyage aboard the Cybele, an interlude with a stable of gladiators, an amputation, a flock of escaped ostriches and an imprisoned Chinese inventor.

Noyer’s enthusiastic curiosity is effectively channeled through two attractive protagonists: a smooth narrative packed with fascinating historical detail.”

 Kirkus Reviews 4/01/05

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“I really enjoyed it. [Noyer] managed to convey a lot of information about a period of History that I don’t know much about without being pedantic about it. It was a rousing good story.”

 Robert Woods /Albuquerque NM

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“….I enjoyed The Cybelene Conspiracy. I could picture so many vivid scenes as if they were on the screen. There is so much action, so much color The era comes to life in the pages. [Noyer’s] descriptions of the naval and nautical aspects of sailing at that time…the scenes, light, color streets, the harbor…are excellent. He takes the reader there, and makes the reader care about his characters.

Carolyn Page, poet-author / Albuquerque, NM

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