The Tomb of Zeus

It is 1928, and Laetitia Talbot has arrived at the home of archeologist Theo Russell on Crete.  She is going to head up a dig herself.  She is surprised at the first dinner party to meet William Gunning, an architect and someone she knows.  Later that evening, Gunning warns Letty of strange behaviours in this particular household.

The day after her arrival, Letty's hostess, Phoebe Russell, commits suicide.  The note she leaves uses the words of an Ancient Greek play to indicate that although she loved her husband, she had had an affair with another man.  That man being the son of her husband.  Phoebe's doctor, Letty and Gunning don't believe Phoebe committed suicide.  They are sure she was murdered.

The following day, Letty and Gunning set off with Aristidis, a local man and his crew to begin the digging of an archeological site that Russell had recommended.  Only, they move the dig slightly to a more promising ground.

At the coroner's inquest they learn that  Phoebe was pregnant, and that that pregnancy could only have happened when she was away in Paris.  Her stepson was also in Paris at the same time.  This tears father and son apart.  Letty and Gunning learn from her doctor that Phoebe was also suffering from the early onset of leprosy.  Meantime Phoebe's stepson is seriously injured in a car accident.

The dig provides some interesting and unexpected surprises.  More surprises are to come - away from the dig in this murder mystery by author Barbara Cleverly.