half Roman, half Native aids Governor in Roman Britain, murder of Imperial envoy

Arcturus is Agricola's doctor. The son of a Roman centurion and a British woman he is caught between two worlds. When a beautiful woman comes to warn him of a plot against Agricola, he tries to find out more, only to find the man she points to as the main suspect is her unwanted fiance, whose murdered body is then found in a mithraeum.

The book is competently done and full of twists and turns but is not the genre-founding original work the author tries to claim for it. ( )

It is the duty of Arcturus, physician to the governor Agricola, to discover who killed the mysterious Maecenas, a man with a message for Agricola. Maecenas is found draped unceremoniously over a sacred altar with his throat cut open, but the blood around him is not his own and the throat wound didn’t kill him. Who did kill him, and why? What is the future for Agricola - and for Arcturus?

This book is marketed as “Roman noir” and I think that suits it very well. Setting a mystery in Roman Britain is a great idea and surprisingly, the noir genre works very well in the context of Londinium. At times I felt like I was watching a classic film even though I was clearly reading a book set in a place distant from any of them. The problem is, though, that I didn’t really like the book much. It took me days to read and I just wasn’t interested in the resolution of the mystery. I was generally confused and I felt as though the main character was making connections without letting me know. This is very common for me and mysteries though, so it’s probably just me. I was hoping that since it was historical fiction, it might have a little more for me to grasp, but I didn’t find that to be the case.

Worse, Arcturus falls in love in the course of the book. He meets her, she warns him about Maecenas, and then he’s in love, without any conversation or idea of who she is, and then all of a sudden he wants to marry her. I really, really hate unbelievable love stories and I think that biased me against the book before it really got going. I think there may have been some backstory involved between the two, but it is not described here. Maybe in future books. I tried to be objective, but if the love is not even slightly plausible, I find it difficult to follow the rest of the book. It wrapped up nicely, but I didn’t think reading the ending was worth the rest of the book.

I feel somewhat guilty writing this review because I can see that the author put a great deal of effort into the book, particularly with research, and I honestly think that this is just me not liking mysteries. I thought it would feel more like historical fiction, but it’s definitely mystery. I should have known better, but I do owe a review and I can only give my own opinion.

So, in conclusion, I think if you like mysteries, you may like this one as well. I don’t, and I didn’t like this one, but among reviewers, I seem to be the odd one out.

http://chikune.com/blog/?p=391 ( )

This entry is the first in a series. Arcturus, physician to Agricola-governor of Brittannia—is asked to determine who and why a Syrian trader was murdered and draped over a secret shrine to Mithrus. The trader is clutching part of a message to Agricola from the Emperor—is being fired or asked to stay on as governor? It seems almost everyone has a reason to kill the trader from the governer to native Briton. There are lots of red herrings but Arcturus identifies the murderer. Along the way he falls in love and decides to get married. Not a bad entry into the historical mystery genre. The author made an effort to get the details of the period right and includes a glossary of Latin words to help the reader. ( )

It's raining outside, of course; it always is in Londinium. Arcturus, medicus to the governor and sometimes detective, has a murder to solve and limited time to solve it in. There's a beautiful woman, a trusty assistant, a bully with a heart of gold, sneaky politicians, and plenty of villains, of course. All the elements you would expect of a hard-boiled detective story. The difference here is there's also a Mithraeum, a sprinkling of Latin phrases, some Druids, and talk of the Emperor. See, this isn't just any old noir- it's Roman Noir.

The idea of having a hard-boiled detective story set in London (aka "Londinium") 83 AD is a great one. All the fun of your usual noir, plus Roman intrigue. As far as the mystery goes, I'd say Ms. Stanley pulled it off nicely. She clearly knows her history (and her noir) and the story had plenty of nice twists and turns. Occasionally there were odd jumps that read, to me, like someone had edited out a scene but forgotten to fix the transition, though that may have been fixed in the final copy. My main gripe, though, is about the romance. This is the third historical fiction I've read in the least few months that would have been vastly superior had it not included the romance. Ladies, I know you really want to have a love interest in your story but please- if you decide to go for it, spend as much time developing that as you did you history. An unrealistic love affair can ruin the suspension of disbelief just as easily as a poorly researched historical scene can. I read in Ms. Stanley's bio that she loves Shakespeare and I can believe that- some of the relationships read like the comic love stories of Shakespears in that everyone seems to fall in love with exactly the right person by the end, for no apparent reason and with no explanation, and they do so seemingly instantaneously. I'm reasonably romantic but come on. It takes more than a pair of pretty eyes.

So, the romance was bad, and I really, sincerely hope Ms. Stanley will work on that because she has a whole series planned around this concept, and I for one think it has great potential. As of now, I'd check out the second installment for sure, then see how it develops. I wouldn't call this a great book (even without the romance) but it was a solidly good read and has the potential to be more. Excellent job with the innovation, Ms. Stanley, and I'll be keeping my eye out for the next book in the series. As for the rest of you, if you enjoy Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet, and especially if you enjoy Roman history, or even if you don't know much about either but want a fun, original murder mystery, check this out- it's good, muddy fun. ( )