num_pages: 354
description: Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning sure-footed challenging our values piquing our curiosity she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us. Hilary MantelIn myth Theseus was the slayer of the child-devouring Minotaur in Crete. What the founder-hero might have been in real life is another question brilliantly explored in The King Must Die. Drawing on modern scholarship and archaeological findings at Knossos Mary Renaults Theseus is an utterly lifelike figurea king of immense charisma whose boundless strivings flow from strength and weaknessbut also one steered by implacable prophecy.The story follows Theseuss adventures from Troizen to Eleusis where the death in the books title is to take place and from Athens to Crete where he learns to jump bulls and is named king of the victims. Richly imbued with the spirit of its time this is a page-turner as well as a daring act of imagination.Renaults story of Theseus continues with the sequel The Bull from the Sea.This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary Renault including rare images of the author. 
language: English
title: The King Must Die
publisher: Open Road Media