359 ( )

Though dealing with approximately the same period, this first entry is much drier than Lindsey Davis' Flavia Alba series. ( )

Historically, mildly interesting; novelistically, not so much. Pliny Secundus is appointed a special investigator into the murder of the dissolute and little loved imperial informer, Verpa. There are plenty of suspects, plenty of red herrings, and plenty of Latin vocabulary larding the pages.

Sadly there is little vividness in the writing which at time is overwhelmed by pedantry. Real historical characters other than Pliny walk through the book. One of them is Martial, the Roman epigrammist who seeks to make himself the protege of the wealthy and connected Pliny. The device doesn't really add to the heft of the novel; Martial seems to have been introduced as Pliny's possible sidekick but ends up feeling like a walk-on or a one man Greek chorus in the story.

This is a novel one wants to really like but the impression is that increased editing and pruning would have made that easier for readers. It might be worthwhile for readers enamored of novels set in ancient Roman to stick around and read more Pliny stories to see if Macbain's skills as a novelist grow and develop. ( )

In the last days of the reign of Domitian, one of his informers, Verpa, is found murdered in bed. Can Pliny find the murderer before all of the dead man's slaves are executed on suspicion for the crime?

Quite a gripping climax but otherwise not terribly interesting. If I hadn't been reading it for my online book club I probably wouldn't have persisted ( )