Customer Reviews
First Book in an Excellent Series - By: J. Chippindale, 04 Apr 2008 
Steven Saylor's fascination with Ancient Rome beganin his childhood. A history graduate & former newspaper & magazine editor, he livesin Berkeley, California. His series of books about Ancient Rome & featuring Gordianus the Finder are extremely popular both herein England & alsoin America. Anyone who is a fan of Lindsey Davis will love these books too.
This is the first bookin the series & we are introduced to Gordianus the Finder, the main characterin this great series. He is an investigator of crimes at a periodin history when the only aid you had to solving a crime or a mystery of any kind for that matter were your powers of deduction. Gordianus is renowned for his integrity & his ability to get to the bottom of a mystery & is much sought afterin the city of Rome.
He is hired by the young Cicero to acquit or convict a man accused of murdering his own fatherin a delicate case that soon begins to produce dangerous problems for our esteemed detective.
First Book in the Series - By: J. Chippindale, 17 May 2007 Steven Saylor's fascination with Ancient Rome beganin his childhood. A history graduate & former newspaper & magazine editor, he livesin Berkeley, California. His series of books about Ancient Rome & featuring Gordianus the Finder are extremely popular both herein England & alsoin America. Anyone who is a fan of Lindsey Davis will love these books too.
This is the first bookin the series & we are introduced to Gordianus the Finder, the main characterin this great series. He is an investigator of crimes at a periodin history when the only aid you had to solving a crime or a mystery of any kind for that matter were your powers of deduction. Gordianus is renowned for his integrity & his ability to get to the bottom of a mystery & is much sought afterin the city of Rome.
He is hired by the young Cicero to acquit or convict a man accused of murdering his own fatherin a delicate case that soon begins to produce dangerous problems for our esteemed detective.
First Book in the Series - By: J. Chippindale, 31 Jan 2007 
Steven Saylor's fascination with Ancient Rome beganin his childhood. A history graduate & former newspaper & magazine editor, he livesin Berkeley, California. His series of books about Ancient Rome & featuring Gordianus the Finder are extremely popular both herein England & alsoin America. Anyone who is a fan of Lindsey Davis will love these books too.
This is the first bookin the series & we are introduced to Gordianus the Finder, the main characterin this great series. He is an investigator of crimes at a periodin history when the only aid you had to solving a crime or a mystery of any kind for that matter were your powers of deduction. Gordianus is renowned for his integrity & his ability to get to the bottom of a mystery & is much sought afterin the city of Rome.
He is hired by the young Cicero to acquit or convict a man accused of murdering his own fatherin a delicate case that soon begins to produce dangerous problems for our esteemed detective.
Disappointing and no substitute for Falco - By: nads, 30 Jan 2007 
Having worked my way through the whole of the excellent Falco series, I was on the look out for another Ancient Roman detective series to fill the gap. Sadly, this is not it.
Although Saylor's work seems historically accurate, he lacks Lindsey Davies' ability to bring the ancient city of Rome to life - which for me is half the joy of reading a historical mystery.
He also lacks her warmth, wisdom, & understanding of human nature. I found his female characters thin & unconvincing. Bethesda seems to be there to fulfil the traditional female roles of being menaced by the villains & providing the hero with (remarkably frequent)sexual services. Gordianus claims to be fond of her, but never goes so far as to hold a conversation with her. The other main female characters were frankly unbelieveable.
The mystery was not particularly enthralling(more a "How long is it going to take him to work out what's going on?" than a "Whodunnit?") & if I want a life of Cicero, I'll read Robert Harris' Imperium.
Not for me, & I won't be bothering with the rest of the series.
First of a Great Series - By: J. Chippindale, 18 Dec 2006 Steven Saylor's fascination with Ancient Rome beganin his childhood. A history graduate & former newspaper & magazine editor, he livesin Berkeley, California. His series of books about Ancient Rome & featuring Gordianus the Finder are extremely popular both herein England & alsoin America. Anyone who is a fan of Lindsey Davis will love these books too.
Gordianus the Finder, the investigator of crimes, a man whose skill & integrity have made him much sought after by some of the most important menin Rome. Men who may need a secret to be kept, men who need to know that when Gordianus is working for them he will be discreet & not susceptible to bribery.
Such a man is Cicero, who hires Gordianus to look into the affairs of a man who is accused of murdering his own father. He wishes Gordianus to acquire evidence that will either acquit or convict the man. It is a delicate case & one that soon puts Gordianus into more danger than even he is used to.
