Roman Blood, Steven Saylor
Roman Blood, Steven Saylor
4 Rating(s)
List: $24.95 | Sale: $17.47
Club: $12.47

Roman Blood
A Novel of Ancient Rome

Author: Steven Saylor

Narrator: Scott Harrison

Unabridged: 14 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/25/2009


Synopsis

In Rome, 80 BC, on a warm spring morning, Gordianus the Finder receives a summons to the house of a then-unknown young advocate and orator, Cicero. Ambitious and brilliant, the twenty-six-year-old Cicero is about to argue his first important case. His client is a wealthy farmer, one Sextus Roscius of the town of Ameria, who stands accused of the most unforgivable act in Ancient Rome: the murder of his father.Hired by Cicero to investigate the charges, Gordianus sets out to discover the truth in a case—and a society—rife with deceit, betrayal, and conspiracy. As he draws nearer to the truth, the conspiracy looms ever larger until Gordianus begins to perceive the hand of the dictator Sulla himself. Playing for stakes much higher than he bargained for, Gordianus finds that not only is he himself endangered, but so are all those around him.

About Steven Saylor

Steven Saylor is a freelance writer, editor, and the author of novels set in ancient Rome. He studied history at the University of Texas at Austin. Saylor’s writing has appeared in the Threepenny Review, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He lives in Berkeley, California, and Austin, Texas.

About Scott Harrison

Scott Harrison is a graduate of the American Repertory Theater Institute in Massachusetts and founder of Ironweed Productions, a theater company in Santa Fe, New Mexico.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Clemens

This amazing and eventful Roman mystery is the very 1st published, but chronologically wise the 4th adventurous outing of "Gordianus the Finder". Storytelling is excellent, the characters, real historical and wonderful fictional, come all superbly to life, while also the tyrannical atmosphere and har......more

Goodreads review by Emma

This really is a well researched and well written complex mystery, layers over layers. Sailor is so adept at bringing Rome alive in the time of Sulla’s waning dictatorship and just after the proscriptions. A fine balance between social and political history was achieved and it was a most enjoyable r......more


Quotes

“Saylor puts such great detail and tumultuous life into his scenes that the sensation of rubbing elbows with the ancients is quite uncanny.”  New York Times Book Review

“Steven Saylor’s engrossing series of popular novels centered around Gordianus the Finder—a kind of Roman Sherlock Holmes.” Wall Street Journal

“Saylor has acquired the information of a historian but he enjoys the gifts of a born novelist.” Boston Globe

“Saylor evokes the ancient world more convincingly than any other writer of his generation.” Sunday Times, London

“From the arrival of an articulate slave on the doorstep of sleuth Gordianus to the riveting re-creation of an actual oration by Cicero, Saylor’s remarkable first novel takes the reader deep into the political, legal and family arenas of ancient Rome, providing a stirring blend of history and mystery, well seasoned with conspiracy, passion and intrigue…a story greatly enhanced by its vivid characters…A classic historical mystery, in every sense.” Publishers Weekly

“A modern master of historical fiction.” USA Today

“Gripping…A combination of Hitchcock-style suspense and vivid historical details.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Saylor’s evocation of ancient Rome is vivid and realistic. Within its compelling story, one tours Roman life from bottom to top in what is both good history and good mystery…A novelist whose future work will be worth reading.” Austin Chronicle

“The detail is meticulous.”  Archaeology Magazine