Roma Sub Rosa, #2
A review
Arms of Nemesis by Steven Saylor
307 pages. Published by St. Martins Press—3PL in 2008.
Historical Fiction – Mystery – Crime
Synopsis:
The hideously disfigured body was found in the atrium. The only clues are a blood-soaked cloak, and, carved into the stone at the corpse’s feet, the word Sparta. The murdered man was the overseer of Marcus Crassus’s estate, apparently killed by two runaway slaves bent on joining Spartacus’s revolt. In response to the murder, the wealthy, powerful Crassus vows to honor an ancient law and kill his ninety-nine remaining slaves in three days. Now Gordianus the Finder has been summoned from Rome by a mysterious client to find out the truth about the murder before the three days are up.
Enmeshed in a world of desperate slaves and duplicitous masters, extravagant feasts and sordid secrets, Gordianus must risk all he loves, including his life, to stop a senseless slaughter-and save the very future of Rome itself.
My thoughts:
If you are not interested in Ancient Rome, even a passing interest, this series is not for you.
Here we follow Gordianus the Finder, who works as a private detective of sorts in Rome, finding clues and information for the counsel members and anyone that is able to pay his fee. In this installment he is hired to find the murder of a head of household before the enactment of an almost forgotten law is enforced condemning all the slaves of the household to be put to death as two of them are being accused of the murder.
This has some second in series issues, as it has a definitely not as good as the first, but it wasn’t a total disaster as some tend to be.
As one can expect there is a lot of detail about the lives of slaves in this book, which could be off putting for some.
My rating: 3⭐️
Sarah Overbooked 