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A Byzantine hard-boiled Noir P.I ? Someone had to do it ! History and fiction, the Eastern Roman Byzantine empire is packed with bloodbaths, intrigues, incest, adultery, mass murders e.t.c. A great environment for a sleuth to operate. Meet Theophilus-Theo Vardas ...and the Turk. History not like the one taught in school.
This, of course, is purely fictional. The Historical descriptions and facts although subjective, I have tried to maintain a neutral view according to the Historians.
The Byzantine or Eastern Roman empire met with its ultimate glory during the Justinian years. That’s what everyone says. Is all the rest pure “gossip”? Rancor and jealousy? They all agree about the nasty character of empress Theodora. And, as I said, this is a fictional novel of a probably wild imagination but some FACTS raise questions. The little time needed for the rebuilt of Hagia Sophia after it was destroyed. The whole thing took five years to be accomplished but IT HAS STARTED immediately after it had been destroyed to the point that some Historians and researchers wonder if it had been ordered long before and Anthemius and Isidorus had been working upon some secret state projects concerning a great church months before the “Nika riots”. And this by itself leaves an open space for an imagination like mine to make up stories like this one. At the time, there were already TWO great Basilica churches in Constantinople. Hagia Sophia AND Hagia Irene, both in great splendor and admiration. Isidorus’s “where the hell is he going to build it? Outside the walls?” appearing in the novel is a plausible question. The city didn’t need a THIRD Basilica!!! Thus, my narration is not completely misplaced.
I am not an author; this is the first time I try to write a novel -try to write anything- and I don’t know the technique. But… I am a huge Noir fan in both cinema and literature. I intended to write a hard-boiled detective P.I Historical Noirish novel. So much for the Noir … History keeps the greatest part of it leaving little to the Noir crime fiction. Historical fiction is the most difficult kind, I have been told. I solemnly confess that after Jim Thomson, Philip Kerr, and his Bernie Gunther are my all-time favorites. Ir would have been pretentious of me to even try to navigate into their paths. Yet, audacious as I might have been at the age of 67, I gave it a go.
Writing a novel in the first-person narrative always offers the temptation to express some personal beliefs and ideas and I couldn’t avoid it. Historical facts are one thing though and personal beliefs another. I didn’t violate History, I simply used it to tell a story. You don’t have to agree with me. And, in any case, the intention was to write a Noir crime novel.
I used the “Byzantine empire History” by Vassiliev and by Charles Diehl, the Procopius Secret History albeit its contradictions, and the Malamas Chronicles in my research.