- Hardcover: 192 pages
- Publisher: Sceptre; First Edition edition (17 Aug 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340646829
- ISBN-13: 978-0340646823
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.8 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,125,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Ovid (Marcus Corvinus Mysteries)
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Review
'gripping, ... intellectually stimulating ... Chandler meets Robert Graves and John Barth' -- Times Literary Supplement
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
'gripping, ... intellectually stimulating ... Chandler meets Robert Graves and John Barth' (Times Literary Supplement )
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One might wonder whether there is a need for any more ancient Roman sleuths. In the turbulent dying days of the Republic we have Steven Saylor's gritty plebeian Gordianus and John Maddox Roberts' flippant nobleman Decius Caecilius Metellus. Move forward a century or so to the Flavian dynasty of emperors and we find Lindsay Davis's Falco prowling the streets of Rome while later yet Rosemary Rowe's Libertus solves crime in Britannia Province during the reign of the paranoid Commodus of "Gladiator" fame.
Now right in the middle, in the early days of the Empire, Robert Graves's "I, Claudius" country, we have minor aristocrat Maruc Valerius Corvinus, a man who doesn't seem to want much out of life apart from wine, women, and comfort, but has a talent for unravelling mysteries.
To answer the question, yes, there is room for all of them, and David Wishart's Corvinus fills a niche not just in time but also in style. The books are entertaining and well written, and the plotting excellent. Part of the charm lies in comparing people and events with the version we became used to from Graves's epic, and seeing them through Corvinus's disrespectful eyes. The only flaw - which is why I give only four stars here rather than five - is that Wishart's witty anachronisms in Corvinus's speech and thoughts are overdone and get a bit wearing once the initial charm wears off. This is a feature of all the books in the series that I have read so far. But it is worth bearing with it to enjoy the rest of the package.
If you are new to Wishart and Corvinus "Ovid" is the place to start: it's the first in the series, the one that sees him start out on his detecting "career", and it's a rattling good read.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ashes to ashes,dust to dust, but not in the case of Perilla's stepfather Ovid. Somebody in the Roman Establishment has a marked objection to them decomposing gently in Rome, and wants them left out in exile in Tomi. Perilla wants them back and has no compunction about putting the screws on Corvinus, unfortunately standing in line as one of Ovid's patrons, to do something about it Soon Corvinus is heavily involved yet again in something very fishy, and has to deal with lots of low life at all levels of Roman Society. Falling in love with Perilla is a double-edged bonus especially when those he stirs up get back at him through her. Wishart's skill at keeping us thoroughly hooked while taking us along a labrynthine trail is much in evidence, and his skill in giving you a rounded character in a short cameo is brilliant. Sextus Pomponius, battle-scarred decurion of the Twentieth,protecting,coaching and cursing his recruits in the middle of a very nasty fight, and then happily charging one of them for "relaxin' before he'd checked the ****** body," leapt off the pages for me. I'm quite certain he could say it just as pungently in Latin! Corvinus wasn't the only one who started to laugh "'till the tears came" when he arrived.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When joung patrician Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus receives a request to retrieve the poet Ovid's ashes from the place of his exile, he is far from guessing how this routine matter will change his iddle and dissipated lifestyle. Maybe the beautiful eyes of Ovid's stepdaughter have something to do with his decission to follow the matter, but the flat refusal and scared stares that he receives from the Imperial palace bureaucrats and senators are beginning to annoy him, as well as make him very, very curious. What did the dead poet do to emperor Augustus so that, even 8 years later, his ashes still bear the imperial displeasure? And how will current emperor Tiberius and his mother Livia react?
Wishart brings us to the imperail Rome of the Caesars with fantastic ability. The descriptions of people, houses and gastonomic stages are a delight for the reader, as well as the brilliant and inmensely funny dialogs. A book I love to recommend.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Roman gumshoe trying too hard to be film noir
Afraid I didn't make it past the first chapter. I wasn't expecting a translation from the original Latin but this seemed to be 1930s Hollywood transferred directly to ancient Rome. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Bluu
Varus variations
I thought this was an interesting variation on the reasons for the massacre of Varus and his three legions by Arminius. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Silenus
Samus Spadius
I very much wanted to be able to say that I really liked this book. It seemed so promising; written by a scholar of the Classics, part of an established series of novels based... Read more
Published on 30 May 2009 by Edelbee
The First Book Featuring Marcus Corvinus
David Wishart was born in Arbroath, Scotland. He studied Classics - Latin and Greek - at Edinburgh University and after graduation taught for four years in a secondary school. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2007 by J. Chippindale
Raymond Chandler in Tiberian Rome
This, Wishart's second book, is too laddish for my tastes. The main character, Marcus Corvinus, starts boozing before lunch, is cynical about anyone close to power (the... Read more
Published on 1 May 2006 by PJ Nasser
Brilliant! David Wishart has done it again.
The first of the Corvinus novels not only provides a plausible argument for the exile of the poet Ovid, but also introduces the characters of Corvinus and Perilla in a sympathetic... Read more
Published on 23 Dec 1999
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