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Jul. 31st, 2010 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennariaREQUIEM FOR A SLAVE, by Rosemary Rowe.
Cover copy: Libertus has an important order to fulfill for Quintus Severus who has commissioned a magnificent new mosaic. But when Libertus finds a brutally murdered man in his workshop, and discovers that his faithful slave Minimus has vanished, he is once again dragged into a sinister world of crime and treachery.
Even more mysterious is the sighting of a 'green man' lurking in the vicinity around the time the murder took place. Can Libertus solve Minimus' unexplained disappearance and discover who killed the man in his workshop, and why?
The omens aren't looking good...
Gender of detective: male
This is likewise part of a series, although not one where I needed to have read previous books to understand what the hell was going on (nor one where references to previous novels was, God save the mark, helpfully footnoted with the title of the relevant novel). Libertus is a freedman in Roman Britain, near the end of the Pax Romana - separating him from Falco (Rome-based, end of the Republic) by nearly two hundred years as well as hundreds of miles. And he's a mosaic-maker who, in the grand tradition of mystery novels everywhere, attracts mysteries by some invisible magnet, rather than seeking them out as a private investigator. Neither of these things make him better than Falco: I merely point them out as indicators of the difference.
I did like this book better than SCANDAL TAKES A HOLIDAY, though. It's a much more traditional mystery. It's not without flaws - due to the structure of the plot, Libertus winds up with several sidekicks/people-to-bounce-ideas-off-of during the course of the book, which gives it a slightly disjointed feeling. And the 'green man' clue, combined with the person who gives it, winds up being the key to unlocking the whole mystery - but it's a Sudden Realization sort of unlocking, which is tricky enough to handle in third person, and this is first. Likewise, there are several details which all sort of get bundled together at the end and rattled off as fast as possible, as if to prove the author did know what she was doing and didn't drop any threads.
On the bright side, however, I liked Libertus better than I liked Falco, and the author manages to avoid info dumps (or at least anything that felt like an info-dump). I'm far more willing to pick up another in this series than I am to try Falco again.
*
Stef wants to know what they drank, liquor-wise, in ancient China. Attempts to suggest she Google it have been met with the irrefutable fact of her having no time. See, this is why I pre-prep to the max.
Team Mariposa, Blogathon 2010. Sponsor me (and if you do, let me know!)
Cover copy: Libertus has an important order to fulfill for Quintus Severus who has commissioned a magnificent new mosaic. But when Libertus finds a brutally murdered man in his workshop, and discovers that his faithful slave Minimus has vanished, he is once again dragged into a sinister world of crime and treachery.
Even more mysterious is the sighting of a 'green man' lurking in the vicinity around the time the murder took place. Can Libertus solve Minimus' unexplained disappearance and discover who killed the man in his workshop, and why?
The omens aren't looking good...
Gender of detective: male
This is likewise part of a series, although not one where I needed to have read previous books to understand what the hell was going on (nor one where references to previous novels was, God save the mark, helpfully footnoted with the title of the relevant novel). Libertus is a freedman in Roman Britain, near the end of the Pax Romana - separating him from Falco (Rome-based, end of the Republic) by nearly two hundred years as well as hundreds of miles. And he's a mosaic-maker who, in the grand tradition of mystery novels everywhere, attracts mysteries by some invisible magnet, rather than seeking them out as a private investigator. Neither of these things make him better than Falco: I merely point them out as indicators of the difference.
I did like this book better than SCANDAL TAKES A HOLIDAY, though. It's a much more traditional mystery. It's not without flaws - due to the structure of the plot, Libertus winds up with several sidekicks/people-to-bounce-ideas-off-of during the course of the book, which gives it a slightly disjointed feeling. And the 'green man' clue, combined with the person who gives it, winds up being the key to unlocking the whole mystery - but it's a Sudden Realization sort of unlocking, which is tricky enough to handle in third person, and this is first. Likewise, there are several details which all sort of get bundled together at the end and rattled off as fast as possible, as if to prove the author did know what she was doing and didn't drop any threads.
On the bright side, however, I liked Libertus better than I liked Falco, and the author manages to avoid info dumps (or at least anything that felt like an info-dump). I'm far more willing to pick up another in this series than I am to try Falco again.
*
Stef wants to know what they drank, liquor-wise, in ancient China. Attempts to suggest she Google it have been met with the irrefutable fact of her having no time. See, this is why I pre-prep to the max.
Team Mariposa, Blogathon 2010. Sponsor me (and if you do, let me know!)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-31 04:33 pm (UTC)