- Paperback: 261 pages
- Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (Oct 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1590587774
- ISBN-13: 978-1590587775
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 21.3 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 366,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The central mystery is good -- a version of the locked-room puzzle. The solution of the mystery emerges slowly, as important information becomes available to the detective and the reader, and thus the form of the novel is closer to the modern police procedural than the classic detective story. One of the triumphs of the novel is the characterization of the principal detective figure, Pliny the Younger, who is bright, fallible, idealistic, vain, ambitious, sensitive, and capable of change. The other triumph is the richness of the setting, which gave me the delightful feeling that I was not only witnessing the solving of a murder mystery, but learning much about life in Rome in the late 1st century AD. I hope there will be another Plinius Secundus mystery very soon, for I want to see more of that character, and immerse myself again in his Roman world.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First book that I've read by this author- approached it with trepidation - but found it to be a thoroughly absorbing, intertesting and entertaining read. Looking forward to the next one.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Roman Games" is a well done historical mystery by a classics scholar with impeccable knowledge of first century AD Rome and skill in laying down some interesting characters of the period. His protagonist, Gaius Plinius Caecilius (Pliny the Younger), is an unusually principled young Roman senator with a famous uncle (Pliny the Elder), who looks at life through a moral filter unusual for the period. When a senator from the opposite end of the moral spectrum is brutally murdered in his own bedroom, the Emperor Domitian calls upon Gaius Pinius' honesty and intellect to track down the murderer. In a neat plot embellishment, author Bruce Macbain, gives Pliny an interesting sidekick--the poet Martial--a writer of the period known for bawdy verse and political satires.
The story becomes a fairly basic and competently told police procedural, with some interesting sub themes. If you are a reader of this genre, you will notice that it resembles the books of Steven Saylor more than those of Lindsey Davis. Not a lot of humor in these characters and overall, the feel is closer to the historical notations of Suetonius. I found it a good read with an epilogue/author's note that doesn't confirm that there will be a second Pliny book. I hope that there will be. This is a good writer with an interesting subject.
The story becomes a fairly basic and competently told police procedural, with some interesting sub themes. If you are a reader of this genre, you will notice that it resembles the books of Steven Saylor more than those of Lindsey Davis. Not a lot of humor in these characters and overall, the feel is closer to the historical notations of Suetonius. I found it a good read with an epilogue/author's note that doesn't confirm that there will be a second Pliny book. I hope that there will be. This is a good writer with an interesting subject.
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