Oracle

Justice will be done, but what kind of justice? High on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, near the ancient Temple of Apollo, a group of young idealists protest against the despoiling of the planet outside a European governmental conference. Inside, corporate business lobbyists mingle with lawmakers, seeking profit and influence. Then the charismatic leader of the protest goes missing. The next day the body of a local woman is discovered in a temple building, placed like an offering to the old gods. Attending the conference Cassandra Fortune, civil servant, former GCHQ investigator and envoy of the British Prime Minister, is co-opted onto the case by the Professor, a senior Greek politician. She is to work alongside Ministerial Security Chief Iraklidis and local policeman Alex Ganas, who are soon joined by Major Lykaios from regional police headquarters. But the police do not trust each other, each fearing that the others are members of a banned, right-wing organisation, Golden Dawn. And they see no reason to trust Cassie. Only a day later another corpse is found, bloodied and broken, at the foot of the cliffs which tower above the Temple, from which blasphemers once were cast. At the behest of the Professor Cassie and her interpreter, Helena, begin questioning the conference goers and quickly discover that some have their own, hidden agendas and reasons to deceive. As a storm closes in, strange lights are seen on the mountain. Cassie, meanwhile, believes that someone is stalking her, watching her every move. She is followed on the lonely walk to the conference centre at midnight and high above the Corycian Cave, inhabited since the Bronze Age, show signs of more recent occupation. Who is the walker in the mountain mist? When an avalanche isolates the conference centre and all power is cut, preventing communication with the outside world, it is up to Cassie and the others to find the killer. Are primal forces reaching out from the past and will the ancient and brutal Furies claim their blood vengeance? Or will the forces of law discover the key lies in a tangled, modern web of tragedy and guilt as relentless and fatal as in any Greek drama. Like the famously cryptic Oracle of Delphi, Cassandra Fortune must provide answers...