- Hardcover: 211 pages
- Publisher: Saint Martin's Press Inc.; First Edition edition (13 Dec 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312370881
- ISBN-13: 978-0312370886
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 585,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Synopsis
Decius discovers the dark side of his position as Praetor when he is asked to investigate the killing of a priest in a town near Vesuvius, while protecting the young boy who has become the prime suspect from the local mob vigilantes, in a mystery set against the backdrop of the ancient Roman republic. 15,000 first printing.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is book number eleven in the SPQR series, John Maddox Roberts answer to the Roman series of books by Lindsey Davis, Steven Saylor etc. I have read most of them as I am always a sucker for anything Roman, fact or fiction. As an aside I don't know why but for some reason Amazon seems to be one of the few places where you can actually purchase books by this author. Borders and Waterstones do not seem to stock them for some unknown reason. Personally I find them quite an enjoyable read and I am sure many other readers feel the same.
In this book Decius Caecilius Metellus has moved onward and upward with his life. Still a happy go lucky kind of guy but now with added responsibility. He is Praetor Peregrinus, a lofty title, and one that means he has to judge a few cases to earn a crust. But in the main these cases are outside the City boundaries and involve foreigners.
One of his port of calls is Campania and Decius and his wife Julia are more than willing to do the sight seeing tour of such a popular place. However the holiday feeling soon changes in a little town near Vesuvius, a girl, the daughter of one of the local priests is brutally murdered.. It falls on Decius to find the murderer and keep the towns people from falling on a young boy, who they all seem to blame for the death. Decius is not so sure but how is he going to prevent a miscarriage of justice. Perhaps his new found status is not all its cracked up to be . . .
In this book Decius Caecilius Metellus has moved onward and upward with his life. Still a happy go lucky kind of guy but now with added responsibility. He is Praetor Peregrinus, a lofty title, and one that means he has to judge a few cases to earn a crust. But in the main these cases are outside the City boundaries and involve foreigners.
One of his port of calls is Campania and Decius and his wife Julia are more than willing to do the sight seeing tour of such a popular place. However the holiday feeling soon changes in a little town near Vesuvius, a girl, the daughter of one of the local priests is brutally murdered.. It falls on Decius to find the murderer and keep the towns people from falling on a young boy, who they all seem to blame for the death. Decius is not so sure but how is he going to prevent a miscarriage of justice. Perhaps his new found status is not all its cracked up to be . . .
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
To my ear, John Maddox Roberts' tone is the one that rings least false. His Decius is a stoic, unsentimental Roman republican aristocrat. Not a chav in togs (Davis), not a time-traveling Spenser (Saylor), not a long-winded wisecracker (Wishart), not a hero on loan from Harlequin (McCullough - though she does get points for thoroughness).
Not unusually, I'm in the minority here. So I buy Decius stories in hardcover (well, I tried German paperbacks, which are ahead by a couple of releases, but my German isn't up to it). This is the only standing exception to my hard-line no-hardcover policy - fortunately they are fairly slim and well designed, not those heavy bricks probably aimed at giving "value for money" or something.
Oh, and Maddox Roberts tells ripping good yarns, as befits someone who cut his teeth writing Conan stories. But he also works in interesting details - such as Decius' participant description of a lustration in SPQR 8 (Tribune's Curse) - which I haven't found elsewhere. A light touch of humor (as in deriding opponents - not heavy handed pratfalls), an occasional hand-fight, and fast moving plots do not hurt.
Not unusually, I'm in the minority here. So I buy Decius stories in hardcover (well, I tried German paperbacks, which are ahead by a couple of releases, but my German isn't up to it). This is the only standing exception to my hard-line no-hardcover policy - fortunately they are fairly slim and well designed, not those heavy bricks probably aimed at giving "value for money" or something.
Oh, and Maddox Roberts tells ripping good yarns, as befits someone who cut his teeth writing Conan stories. But he also works in interesting details - such as Decius' participant description of a lustration in SPQR 8 (Tribune's Curse) - which I haven't found elsewhere. A light touch of humor (as in deriding opponents - not heavy handed pratfalls), an occasional hand-fight, and fast moving plots do not hurt.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger is a member of a rich and powerful Roman family, and regarded by his relatives as the family oddball. He is unorthodox, irreverent, and has a penchant for tackling and solving mysteries, qualities that have provided some entertaining and readable novels in the SPQR series.
But family duty calls, and as Metellus gets a bit older and more comfortably married (to a relative of Julius Caesar, a politically useful love-match) he develops his career of public service, working through the carefully graded sequence of offices known to Romans as the cursus homorum, the course of honour. Now he is a praetor, high rank indeed, and to his delight he has the post that involves acting as judge and investigating magistrate in some really interesting cases.
His duty takes him to the Campania, Rome's holiday playground, inhabited by a set of people whose wealth and lifestyle make the excesses to be found in Rome look positively modest. There he lingers, and who would not? But the holiday atmosphere is broken by a sensational murder which has all the features of the sort of case Metellus likes. Straightforward on the surface, it soon reveals depths of social tensions, attempted cover-up, pressure for a speedy result (a convenient, even if not just, result), possible major-league politics, and secrets some people do not want brought out. Metellus must find his way through the maze, under increasing pressure and dealing with further murders, and determine the truth before an innocent man suffers the death penalty.
The SPQR series can be slightly uneven in quality but they are always a good read and this one is certainly an engrossing page-turner. One enjoys following Metellus's career and life, and wonders how he will be involved in the coming civil strife looming in the background of these books that bring to life the dying days of the Roman Republic.
But family duty calls, and as Metellus gets a bit older and more comfortably married (to a relative of Julius Caesar, a politically useful love-match) he develops his career of public service, working through the carefully graded sequence of offices known to Romans as the cursus homorum, the course of honour. Now he is a praetor, high rank indeed, and to his delight he has the post that involves acting as judge and investigating magistrate in some really interesting cases.
His duty takes him to the Campania, Rome's holiday playground, inhabited by a set of people whose wealth and lifestyle make the excesses to be found in Rome look positively modest. There he lingers, and who would not? But the holiday atmosphere is broken by a sensational murder which has all the features of the sort of case Metellus likes. Straightforward on the surface, it soon reveals depths of social tensions, attempted cover-up, pressure for a speedy result (a convenient, even if not just, result), possible major-league politics, and secrets some people do not want brought out. Metellus must find his way through the maze, under increasing pressure and dealing with further murders, and determine the truth before an innocent man suffers the death penalty.
The SPQR series can be slightly uneven in quality but they are always a good read and this one is certainly an engrossing page-turner. One enjoys following Metellus's career and life, and wonders how he will be involved in the coming civil strife looming in the background of these books that bring to life the dying days of the Roman Republic.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
