Roman Games, Bruce Macbain
Roman Games, Bruce Macbain
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
Club: $8.47

Roman Games
A Plinius Secundus Mystery

Author: Bruce Macbain

Narrator: Bronson Pinchot

Unabridged: 8 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/01/2010


Synopsis

Rome, September a.d. 96. When the body of Sextus Verpa, a notorious senatorial informer and libertine, is found stabbed to death in his bedroom, his slaves are suspected. Pliny, a very respectable young senator and lawyer,is ordered by the emperor Domitian to investigate. However, the Ludi Romani, the Roman Games, have just begun, and for the next fifteen days the law courts are in recess. If Pliny cant identify the murderer in that time, Verpas entire slave household will be burned alive in the arena. Pliny teams up with Martial, a starving author of bawdy verses and denizen of the Roman demimonde. Pooling their respective talents, they unravel a plot that involves Jewish and Christian atheists, exotic Egyptian cultists, and a missing horoscope that forecasts the emperors death. Their investigation leads them into the heart of the palace, where no one is safe from the paranoid Domitian.As the deadline approaches, Pliny struggles with the painful dilemma of a good man who is forced to serve a brutal regimea situation familiar in our own age as well. The novel provides an intimate glimpse into the palaces and tenements, bedrooms and brothels of imperial Romes most opulent and decadent age. A Poisoned Pen Press Mystery

About Bruce Macbain

Bruce Macbain holds a master’s degree in classical studies from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in ancient history from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught Greek and Roman history at Vanderbilt and Boston University. He enjoys traveling and was one of the first Peace Corps volunteers to serve in Borneo. He lives with his wife in Brookline, Massachusetts.


Reviews

Writing detective stories set in a period before detectives is a difficult process. A certain degree of anachronism is almost unavoidable. It comes from a dogmatic reliance on tropes that have long since become cliche: the dedicated detective driven by an abstract notion of justice, a careful attent......more

Let’s play a bit with some quotes… the novel has its setting in Rome “The greatest city in the history of the world, built by blood and iron, but equally by a native sense of propriety, dignity, and reverence for tradition.” during “The Roman Games… lies, murder, hypocrisy, betrayal.” and the plot u......more

In today's CSI, DNA, video surveillance world, mysteries don't seem as mysterious. There's always some evidence of comings and goings and presence, and getting away with murder has more to do with clever lawyering than good detecting. Not so in Rome, A.D. 96. (were I a joker of sorts, I might start o......more

Goodreads review by Andrea

Libro ben scritto, ma con un ritmo piuttosto lento. Il giallo è ben studiato anche se non appassiona più di tanto. Il personaggio principale, Plinio il giovane, non risulta essere troppo tridimensionale e si fatica a generare empatia e ad affezionarsi.......more