Never try to fool Alexander the Great...or betray him. The Thebans tried, and he burned their great city to the ground. But he left the temple of Oedipus untouched, hoping to obtain the legendary crown inside. Politically, the sacred crown may give him divine status. Privately, it will boost his ego...even more. Practically, it can kill him. Unless, of course, he discovers the ancient secret of crossing the pits of fire and poisonous snakes surrounding it.
But as Alexander calls in his clever Hebrew friends Miriam and Simeon to help, he faces another baffling puzzle. An old soldier, alone inside a locked room and guarded by a ferocious dog, has been murdered. But how? The clues point to a traitor among Alexander's men. Now, amid the agonies of war and the ashes of Thebes, Alexander needs answers, and fast, before his own life becomes just another Greek tragedy....