Cassandra: A Delphic Women Mystery (Delphic Women Series)
The first of Greenwood’s trio of Delphic Women novels, originally published in Australia in 1995, appears here as the follow-up to Medea (2013), but it was originally the third book in the series. It’s easy to see why the American publisher might have chosen to reverse the original order of publication: Medea is a very strong book, while Cassandra is less so. It follows the same model—Greenwood takes someone from Greek mythology and tells her story as though it really happened—but Cassandra, cursed by Apollo (whose advances she spurned) with the ability to prophesy future events, isn’t quite as compelling a lead or as tragic a heroine as Medea, who allegedly was betrayed by her husband, the explorer Jason, and murdered her own children. Greenwood uses the destruction of Troy as the backdrop for Cassandra’s story, which is redrawn as the saga of a woman who has been misunderstood and miscast by history. The writing here is sluggish, compared to the sharp prose of Medea, but readers interested in Greek mythology or enamored of  earlier book will want to check this one out, too. --David Pitt--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.