Electra: A Delphic Woman Mystery (Delphic Women Series)
The middle book of Greenwood’s Delphic Women trilogy (originally published 1995–97) is the last to appear in the U.S. It is also the strongest, a sort of revisionist look at the aftermath of the fall of Troy. King Agamemnon returns, heroic, to Mycenae, only to fall victim to the murderous plot of his queen, Clytemnestra. Electra, the royal couple’s daughter, is swept out of the city by Cassandra, the Trojan slave (and the focus of an earlier book in this series), hoping to get her safely to Delphi. Ancient Greek mythology is usually told from the point of view of the male characters, but Greenwood’s three-book series focuses on the female players. This allows her to examine previously underexplored characters, motivations, and events. Known for the strong female protagonists, Phryne Fisher and Corinna Chapman, in her two mystery series, Greenwood does an excellent job here of giving the ancient Greek story a modern flavor, using lean, unadorned prose and dialogue to make it seem as though the story could be taking place today. --David Pitt--This text refers to an alternatePaperbackedition.