Customer Reviews
The best of the Roman story writers - By: A. B. Leal, 21 Sep 2008 
To my ear, John Maddox Roberts' tone is the one that rings least false. His Decius is a stoic, unsentimental Roman republican aristocrat. Not a chavin togs (Davis), not a time-traveling Spenser (Saylor), not a long-winded wisecracker (Wishart), not a hero on loan from Harlequin (McCullough - though she does get points for thoroughness).
Not unusually, I'min the minority here. So I buy Decius storiesin hardcover (well, I tried German paperbacks, which are ahead by a couple of releases, but my German isn't up to it). This is the only standing exception to my hard-line no-hardcover policy - fortunately they are fairly slim & well designed, not those heavy bricks probably aimed at giving "value for money" or something.
Oh, & Maddox Roberts tells ripping good yarns, as befits someone who cut his teeth writing Conan stories. But he also worksin interesting details - such as Decius' participant description of a lustrationin SPQR 8 (Tribune's Curse) - which I haven't found elsewhere. A light touch of humor (asin deriding opponents - not heavy handed pratfalls), an occasional hand-fight, & fast moving plots do not hurt.
Book Eleven in the SPQR Series - By: J. Chippindale, 20 Dec 2007 
This is book number elevenin the SPQR series, John Maddox Roberts answer to the Roman series of books by Lindsey Davis, Steven Saylor etc. I have read most of them as I am always a sucker for anything Roman, fact or fiction. As an aside I don't know why but for some reason Amazon seems to be one of the few places where you can actually purchase books by this author. Borders & Waterstones do not seem to stock them for some unknown reason. Personally I find them quite an enjoyable read & I am sure many other readers feel the same.
In this book Decius Caecilius Metellus has moved onward & upward with his life. Still a happy go lucky kind of guy but now with added responsibility. He is Praetor Peregrinus, a lofty title, & one that means he has to judge a few cases to earn a crust. Butin the main these cases are outside the City boundaries & involve foreigners.
One of his port of calls is Campania & Decius & his wife Julia are more than willing to do the sight seeing tour of such a popular place. However the holiday feeling soon changesin a little town near Vesuvius, a girl, the daughter of one of the local priests is brutally murdered.. It falls on Decius to find the murderer & keep the towns people from falling on a young boy, who they all seem to blame for the death. Decius is not so sure but how is he going to prevent a miscarriage of justice. Perhaps his new found status is not all its cracked up to be . . .
