Amazon.co.uk Review
Thomas Holt provides us, in
A Song for Nero, with one of the more ingeniously unlikely what-ifs of the modern historical novel: what if the body rebel troops found and dishonoured was not that of the deposed emperor Nero, but that of his official double, Callistus? A decade later, he and Callistus's mouthy younger brother Galen are still wandering the provinces of the empire, living hand to mouth and scam to scam--in some ways, a more inventive punishment for a tyrant than any court could imagine.
Holt's Nero is a fascinating set of contradictions, a fairly likable man in recovery from the total corruption of absolute power and keen to deny his worst crimes, or at least play them down. The petty crook Galen is the ideal foil for him, someone who cannot quite believe that his companion once did those things. And then their problems start. Not everybody thinks Nero is really dead, and there are all sorts of people with a use for him.
Like Holt's other historical novels, this one combines some of the inventive wit of his fantasies with real knowledge of the Classical period and a dark sense of irony; its principal weakness--some very routine thriller plotting--does not diminish the effectiveness of this distinctive tone of voice. --Roz Kaveney
Review
Holt's comic-historical novel begins with an irresistible premise: that Nero, ex-Emperor of the Romans, is now traipsing round the ancient world with a 'tickler' of bath houses (where clothes are stolen via a long pole and a hook), a down-at-heel con man. Add a large supporting cast and the search for some lost treasure and the result is very entertaining - even if the main plot takes a while to get going. Holt's conversational style, arguably sometimes distracting in its knowing manner, has great immediacy and charm, carrying the reader swiftly through a series of events, comic and fantastic. Characteristically, the author wears his period research lightly throughout. Nero and his travelling companion Galen are an excellent fictional duo, making this a highly recommendable book.
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