I interpreted this month’s prompt –“What a Wonderful World” – by reading a book set somewhere I absolutely adore, hence my jumping back into the wonderful alt-ancient Mediterranean world created by A.J. Demas. Honey & Pepper (from 2022) is billed as book one in the When in Pheme series (book two has yet to make an appearance, but my fingers are crossed for another instalment soon!) and while it’s not the strongest of her books – the pacing is a bit off and the ending is rushed – the tender romance, the careful and complex worldbuilding and the insightful presentation of the (sometimes dirty) politics and the thorny issues both protagonists are working through nonetheless make for an entertaining and absorbing read.

The two leads are Nikias, a recently freed slave who has lived most of his life up in the mountains outside Pheme, and Kallion, also recently freed and working as a lawyer for the city. After gaining his freedom, Nikias headed to the city where he now cooks delicious food at a small snack stand that lies on the path between the town and the harbour. When the book opens, he’s just plating up a fresh batch of octopus fritters in the hope that the handsome law clerk who enjoyed them so much the last time Nikias made them might come back for another helping.

As he’s arranging the dishes, Nikias witnesses a disturbance at the nearby home of the wealthy and influential Photionos family when a loudly protesting man is roughly ejected from the house by the burly doorman. As this isn’t an uncommon experience Nikias doesn’t pay much attention, but when he sees the man pull a knife and run at a familiar figure walking towards the house, he starts to move into the street but stands, frozen, as the man grabs the law clerk and puts a knife to his throat. Before Nikias can do anything to help, the clerk has twisted away from his captor and disarmed him, and the man runs off. The incident over, Nikias helps the clerk to collect the scrolls he’s dropped and the two of them head back towards the snack stand, where the clerk – who introduces himself as Kallion – asks if there are any octopus fritters. Realising the man is more shaken than he wants to let on (and so is Nikias) Nikias calmly serves the food and the pair chat for a while before Kallion takes his leave – but Nikias is determined to find a way to see him again, with or without the octopus fritters.

Nikias and Kallion are two very different young men, in appearance, temperament and experience. Nikias is a big, gentle and optimistic cinnamon roll of a guy whose life as the slave of a wealthy man who lived very much away from the world was a good one – or so he believed. Since he gained his freedom however, he has realised he simply hadn’t recognised his oppression – he’d grown up knowing nothing else, after all – and he now regularly meets with a group of “anti-slavery radicals” (including the philosopher Lysandros, who appeared in the Sword Dance series) who are trying to effect change.

Kallion is clever and learned to be devious in the household of the late and un-lamented Hesteus, head of the Photonios family and one of the biggest crooks in Pheme. Kallion was also enslaved as a child, and due to his intelligence, he was given an education in oratory – for which he won many prizes (to enhance the glory of the Photonios family, of course) – and trained in the law so that he could be of use to his master in pursuing his widespread criminal activities. As those activites were usually cruel (protection rackets, blackmail, extortion), Kallion did what he could, using his intelligence and talent for manipulation, to attempt to mitigate their effects, but wasn’t able to completely protect those Hesteus wanted to ruin – and now Hesteus is dead (or is presumed to be dead as nobody has seen or heard from him for months) Kallion is trying to undo at least some of the terrible harm Hesteus caused.

Nikias and Kallion have both been free men for six months when we meet them, and thus have had time to start to get to grips with their pasts as slaves, and to start learning to take a different view of the world and their places in it. They’re both in sore need of a friend when they meet, and, since they’ve each been harbouring a secret crush on the other, that friendship develops into something more as they find succour and support in a kind of easy domesticity which is delightful to read. The sweetness of their romance provides a good contrast to the darker themes of the book.

The one thing that didn’t quite work for me this time around was the plot. At the beginning of the book, the author introduces us to a number of interesting secondary characters and sets up an ‘is he or isn’t he?’ plot surrounding the mysterious death – or not – of crime boss/mobster Hesteus Photionos. Nikias, who has been hired to serve at a party thrown by Hesteus’ sister, is able to observe the strained family dynamic, discovers the menagerie of dangerous animals kept on site and lands himself in the middle of a violent altercation with a bunch of gate-crashing pirates – but the story takes a different turn and this plotline seems to have been forgotten. Don’t get me wrong – I appreciated the focus on the burgeoning romance between Nikias and Kallion and the way the author explores the effects of their very different upbringings in slavery, but after their introduction, the secondary characters largely disappear and so does the looming menace of the mystery plot. Then, around three-quarters of the way through, in an absolutely cracking move, it comes back with a vengeance – but it’s sadly underplayed and is resolved too quickly. (I’d thought perhaps the mystery element would be part of a series story arc, so I was a bit surprised it was wrapped up in just one book.)

Even so, I enjoyed Honey & Pepperand will definitely read the next in the series and any other books the author cares to set in this world.