Uwe Klausner

Set in Trier a year after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, at which Constantine is victorious and takes power, this is a so-so mystery involving the lawyer Gaius Varro trying to prove the innocence of a flute-player, Auletes, of whose arrest he is an eyewitness at the local baths. Varro has 24 hours to solve the murder of a city official brutally tortured to death outside the city walls in the cemetery. Auletes is bitten by a poisonous snake in his jail cell and dies, Varro and his friend Probus, a former army doctor, don't abandon the case but set out to find the murderer. There are several more murders--one accidental--before the case is solved. This is done within the ordered timeline. We also follow some of Varro's domestic life.… (meer)