Unholy Sepulcher (A Getorius and Arcadia Mystery)

By Albert Noyer

A body found in Jerusalem's Holy Sepulcher leads to a sex-cult and Arcadia's abduction: a Bedouin warlord will sell her to the highest bidder.A.D. 440: Before arriving at pre-Islamic Jerusalem, Getorius and Arcadia encounter an anti-Semitic riot on Cyprus, but persuade Saturnilos, a galley-master to help Hebrew refugees escape the riot and persecution on the island. At sea Aphrodisia, an actress-prostitute curses crewmen who lured her aboard. Arcadia befriends her. discovers she suffers from a venereal disease, and claims her as a patient. Getorius objects, yet at Ascalon the feisty actress rejects her help and disappears. Abd-al-Shira insinuates himself as their Arab guide to the Holy City. While visiting the Holy Sepulcher the couple discovers the body of a wealthy middle-aged man lying in Christ's tomb slab, dead of scorpion stings. A juvenile deacon, infatuated with Arcadia, invites her to a secret meeting of Carpocratians, heretic Christians who experience all earthly pleasures in common, including wives. After Arcadia objects, the cult-master has her abducted to a Bedouin warlord, Amir al-Shams, who puts her in his harem, and proposes marriage, but will actually sell her off the a far off King for her medical knowledge. Getorius searches for her with their guide, al-Shira, a sand tracker, yet will he be able to follow the trail of a lame camel suspected of bringing Arcadia into the desert far from Jerusalem? A fast-moving, complex plot that begins at a harvest festival on Cyprus and travels to Jerusalem and the Trans-Jordan wilderness before the mystery of the dead man is unraveled.Travelling to the Holy Land, Surgeon Getorius Asterius and Arcadia stop at Cyprus. A street play turns bawdy at the antics of Aphrodisia, an actress-prostitute. Moshe ben Asher, aged leader of Hebrew refugees, asks for help in escaping on their galley. At sea, Aphrodisia curses crewmen who brought her aboard; she disappears at Ascalon. Abd al-Shira becomes the couple's guide. At Jerusalem's Holy Sepulcher, Deacon Delphinus, nephew of Bishop Juvenal, is infatuated with Arcadia. He has a K branded on an earlobe, as did galley-master Saturnilos. Inside Christ's tomb chamber, the body of a man is discovered lying on the burial slab, also branded with a K. Delphinus admits he knows him, and later lures Arcadia to a secret Karpocratian sect that holds material things in common, including wives and purchased Bedouin girls. Repelled, she demands to return, but the cult-master fears she will reveal their location. Drugged, Arcadia is abducted to the desert fort of warlord Amir al-Shams, who supplies the cult girls. Apelles, his boozy Greek engineer, admits that Arcadia will be sold to a foreign king, yet refuses to help her escape. Getorius's and al-Shira's search for her leads to the cult den, where Saturnilos is found dead of scorpion stings.A climax involves Arcadia's rescue, the fate of Shams and Aphrodisia, and Juvenal's tale of slave brothers he ransomed: Kerinthos succeeded as a merchant; al-Shams became a warlord. When the couple is offered imperial funds to travel in Egypt and verify the Coptic Church's account of the Holy Family's flight from Herod, Getorius balks. Will Arcadia persuade him to go?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1521543828
• ISBN13: 9781521543825
• Release Date: June 2017
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 263 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.7" x 6.0"