The Cuckoo of Amathus

Zoandros is sick of the compromises he makes as spymaster and despises their cause, the king of Amathus. If he spends his best years fixing everything the king breaks, he’ll have sacrificed everything without reward.

But pride traps him: he can’t believe the city will survive without him and would soon fall under Athenian or Persian control if he left. He must remove every threat and slip away, before he turns into someone he can no longer recognize.

With a ruthless Persian agent’s arrival, Zoandros’s sins escalate: from sabotage and bribery, to killing enemies who cross him, to sacrificing innocents who might one day threaten him. But he comes to believe that the kingdom will only be safe if he saves it from the king.