The Hunt for Helen and Paris

The Hunt for Helen and Paris is the third novel in a series of seven novels tracking the adventures of Petraeus from slave to king. Each novel has a different focus. Helen, Queen of Sparta, one of histories mythical character has absconded with Paris, a handsome Prince of Troy. Agamemnon, the most powerful king in Ancient Greece, has commissioned Petraeus to pursue the pair and bring them back. Petraeus, the Captain General of the fleet, tells the story of the hunt and the adventures of the fleet as they travel around the Great Sea. The adventures include solving a murder, discovering that there is a reward for his head and fighting off the bounty hunters, surviving a storm at sea, arriving in a land where Amazons keep the men drugged and here he meets the child Harmothoe, the daughter of Penthesilea the great Amazon General. In the port of Rhakotis Petraeus has a confrontation with Jarha and he learns about trade and commerce and the idea that it will dominate the world. Petraeus sails up the Nile and meets the great Pharaoh, Ramasses, who gives him a present of a sword made by Hephaestus. The fleet sails from Egypt only to run into a battle fleet that they defeat. They have adventures in Tyre where Petraeus confronts Ba'al. Petraeus is washed overboard from his ship and is enslaved to work in a quarry, escapes and is rescued. He makes it back to Greece but Ba'al has sent an assassin to kill him. Petraeus is included in the negotiating team of Odysseus, Menelaus and Palamedes to gain the return of Helen from Troy but the negotiations fail and war is declared.