Edwards, Michael B.

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Edwards, Michael B.

PERSONAL: Married; wife's name Sylvia; children: three.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Academy Chicago Publishers, 363 W. Erie St., #7E, Chicago, IL 60610.

CAREER: Writer, advocate, and soldier. U.S. Army, career officer, retired as lieutenant colonel; currently works as a veterans' advocate.

WRITINGS:

Murder at the Panionic Games (mystery novel), Academy Chicago Publishers (Chicago, IL), 2002.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Murder at the Festival of Apaturia, a second Bias of Priene historical mystery novel, for Academy Chicago Publishers.

SIDELIGHTS: Novelist Michael B. Edwards is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who currently works as a veterans' advocate. He developed an interest in ancient Greece and the Ionic League while stationed in Izmir, Turkey, in the 1980s. Since then, he has visited every Ionic League site, and this inspired him to write his first mystery novel, Murder at the Panionic Games. It is Edwards's deep knowledge of the historical setting he writes about that "makes all the difference between a costume drama that uses the trappings of the period and one like this that really manages to get under the ancient Greek skin," observed a reviewer on MyShelf.com.

In 650 B.C.E. Greece, the twelve nation-states of the Ionic Greek league bought together their athletic champions for a series of games and competitions in Pirene. The games' opening ceremonies were held in the temple where sacrifices were made to Poseidon and where Bias, the novel's narrator, serves as a subpriest. When the local star athlete Tyrestes is poisoned following the initial sacrifice, he collapses and is caught by Bias and another athlete, Endemion. Because of his proximity to the dead man, Bias is assumed to be living under a "miasma," a taint or pollution caused by any murder on sacred ground. This miasma is thought to have a negative effect on the games as well as on the state of Pirene, and the local officials suggest that Bias should assume a great interest in solving the murder in order to lift the dead man's taint from the games and from the state. Bias works his way through a selection of likely suspects, including Endemion; magistrate Nolarion, Endemion's father and a former athletic champion; a group of beautiful girls; and two other magistrates. During his investigations, a prominent athlete from the state of Miletus is killed, raising the stakes from athletic competition to full-scale conflict between states. The meek and timid Bias must redouble his efforts to solve the crimes, not only to bring the murderers to justice but to prevent the outbreak of war.

A Kirkus Reviews critic remarked that "Bias spends too much time mulling over motive and alibi, but his wry perspective makes an otherwise conventional debut appealing." A Publishers Weekly contributor called the book a "cleanly plotted tale," but noted that the story is "so simply told it might almost be aimed at the young adult market." Other critics were more pleased overall with the tale. "The period detail is fascinating … the plot clever, and the humor surprisingly contemporary but never anachronistic," commented Wes Lukowsky in Booklist.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, spring, 2003, review of Murder at the Panionic Games, p. 185; spring, 2003, review of Murder at the Panionic Games, p. 197.

Booklist, May 1, 2002, Wes Lukowsky, review of Murder at the Panionic Games, p. 1474.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2002, review of Murder at the Panionic Games, p. 291.

New York Times Book Review, May 5, 2002, Marilyn Stasio, review of Murder at the Panionic Games, p. 24.

Publishers Weekly, April 8, 2002, review of Murder at the Panionic Games, p. 209.