So whilst a great start and I really enjoyed the setting and the style it was written, there were a few parts which went a little slow and the overall mystery wasn't massively interesting or shocking in the end. Or so we think, there are many twists and turns here with quite a bit of intrigue and it all comes out in the wash in the end. It plodded along to start with just simmering in the background and then things kicked off with Gordianus digging deeper and finding out the rhymes and reason much to the determent of his own wellbeing. It only hit me that this was Cicero's actual first trial in real life, and not just a little gimmick the author threw in.

This oozed atmosphere, every description added an extra level of realism to the time, the main character (Gordianus) I believe to be fictitious but the surrounding cast are all real historical figures. It caught me off guard because of this I was thrown straight into Ancient Rome with all these historical figures and their way of life and instantly donned my toga and joined in.

This is one of those where I wasn't expecting to read it but it was a group read for this month, it was on my (very large) wish list, and it cost the princely sum of £0.84 on the Kindle. To rate the book on one of these levels solely would do a disservice, the mystery is playing somewhat second fiddle to the ambience for a large part of the book but then becomes the main driving force at the end.

A great start to this Roman series which attacks on two levels, one being the atmosphere and culture of Ancient Rome and the other being a good old mystery.

Steven saylor roma series