In the Shadow of the Bull

Starred review from November 27, 2017
Can a murder whose killers’ identities and motives are known in advance provide the basis for a gripping whodunit? Saylor answers that question with a definitive yes in his thrilling and moving 16th novel featuring Gordianus the Finder (after 2015’s Wrath of the Furies). From the opening pages, set just days before the infamous Ides of March of 44 BCE, the impending assassination of Julius Caesar looms over the action, even as Gordianus is asked by Cicero and the dictator himself to ascertain whether a soothsayer’s warning of peril has any basis in fact. Caesar’s decision to make Gordianus a senator on the Ides gives the investigator a pretext to spend time with the most powerful Romans, including Marc Antony, Brutus, and Cassius, but his inquiries bear little fruit. As the clock ticks down, Saylor keeps the reader guessing as to how he will devise an actual mystery to resolve after Caesar’s assassination. In doing so, he further deepens his main characters in ways that will reward series fans. Agent: Alan Nevins, Renaissance Literary and Talent.

December 15, 2017
Veteran Roman investigator Gordianus tries to ease the fears of an obsessed Julius Caesar by locating the cabal that may be plotting against him.On March 10, 44 B.C.E., ancient Rome is abuzz with the warning that Spurinna the haruspex delivered to Caesar a few weeks ago. Though he's been frozen out of the emperor's inner circle, Consul Cicero has a foreboding and seeks the guidance of venerable Gordianus, a retired "Finder," in ferreting out the identities of possible conspirators. Gordianus, who narrates in a leisurely first person, is intrigued but doesn't commit until Caesar himself summons him. None other than the scandalous Cleopatra is in attendance when Gordianus agrees to help by discreetly observing suspicious characters. He begins at the colorfully named Salacious Tavern, where the poet Cinna verbally spars with him at length before revealing an ominous message scratched into the sand at his own doorstep: "Beware." Gordianus' wife, Bethesda, and his daughter, Diana, become his sounding boards, mostly pouring water on the alarming conspiratorial fires he reveals to them. A visit to Spurinna confirms that he's no threat to Caesar. But Brutus is another matter entirely. His evasiveness gives Gordianus pause. Nor can he get a read on Antony or Cassius, the latter seen only briefly. Spoiler alert: the novel takes us all the way to March 23.The 16th volume in Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series (The Triumph of Caesar, 2008, etc.) uses the reader's foreknowledge of history to create a special kind of suspense. Its slow pace and abundant period detail tantalize, as Gordianus has multiple near misses with the truth.

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December 1, 2017
The long-running Roma Sub Rosa series about ancient Rome brings the daily life of Rome and the Roman Empire into high relief through a man who functions as an ancient private eye: Gordianus the Finder, who started sleuthing for Cicero, traveling through the empire to pick up hints of plotting when Cicero was a rising orator of 26 and Gordianus was 30. Now it's 44 BCE. Both Cicero and Gordianus are in their sixties; Cicero's power is greatly diminished; Gordianus is officially retired; and Julius Caesar has been dictator of Rome for five years. Cicero and Caesar want Gordianus to investigate both rumors of insurrection and the warning of a priestess: Beware the Ides of March. Saylor's task here is to try to make Caesar's well-known fate suspenseful, and the author admits in an endnote that he dreaded coming to this point in the series. He was right to worry: while he does a solid job of creating some suspense elsewhere, he really can't override the central problem. Still, Saylor's meaty portrayal of ancient Rome remains compelling on its own.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2023
In 1440 B.C.E., a young Cretan woman swears to the Goddess that she will find her sister's killer. Since 15-year-old Martis' dream is to be a bull-leaper, she secretly takes acrobatic lessons. On the day of her sister Arge's wedding to the foreigner Saurus, her bossy oldest sister, Opis, must search for her because she's busy practicing. Martis is a free person, unlike her leatherworker father, Bais, who's a slave, as is his unhappy daughter Nuia, Martis' only full sister. Their mother, Nephele, is a handmaiden to the High Priestess who represents the Goddess. Arge's sudden death at the wedding ceremony leaves Martis stricken because she'd prayed to stop the marriage and blames herself. Arge comes to Martis in a dream, telling her she was poisoned and setting Martis off on a dangerous hunt to avenge her. At first the High Priestess refuses to listen, but her consort, Tinos, a famous bull-leaper, convinces her to grant the girl an audience, and she then allows Martis to hunt for the killer. Running wild on the streets, Martis learns some unsettling things about her squabbling family. Her suspects include an Egyptian prostitute and, of course, Saurus and his friend, who are soon arrested along with Nuia, who wanted Saurus herself. Although she wants to free her sister and hopes Saurus is guilty, Martis is fair-minded enough to doubt his guilt. This complex, character-driven mystery is loaded with fascinating historical details.

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