CATILINA'S RIDDLE

While keeping watch on a radical populist senator for his mentor, Cicero, Gordianus finds a headless corpse in his stables, in a story of conspiracy and murder set in ancient Rome

Saylor ( Arms of Nemesis ) has written another gripping and entertaining historical whodunit. Narrator Gordianus, disillusioned by the corruption of Rome circa 63 B.C., has fled the city with his family to live on a farm in the Etruscan countryside. But this bucolic life is disrupted by the machinations and murderous plots of two politicians: Roman consul Cicero, Gordianus's longtime patron; and populist senator Catalina, Cicero's political rival and a candidate to replace him in the annual elections for consul. Claiming that Catalina plans an uprising if he loses the race, Cicero asks Gordianus to keep a watchful eye on the radical. Although he distrusts both men, Gordianus is forced into the center of the power struggle when his six-year-old daughter Diana finds a headless corpse in their stable. Shrewdly depicting deadly political maneuverings, this addictive mystery also displays the author's firm grasp of history and human character.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gordianus the Finder--legman and sleuth for the orator Marcus Tullius Cicero in Roman Blood (1991) and Arms of Nemesis (1992)--gets swept up in the epochal Catiline conspiracy in this ambitious crossover novel. Retired to an Etruscan farm left him by his benefactor Lucius Claudius, Gordianus already has his hands full with Lucius' surviving relatives--neighboring landowners contemptuous of Gordianus and covetous of the farm they regard as rightfully theirs. But Cicero, whose brilliant legal defense of Gordianus' claim won him the farm, wants to collect on the favor and sends his prot‚g‚ Marcus Caelius, who's wormed his way as a spy into the confidence of Cicero's powerful adversary Lucius Sergius Catilina, to ask Gordianus to make the farm available to Catilina as a retreat so that he too can report back to his wily old employer. When Gordianus hesitates, he finds on his land an omen that uncannily seems to echo a riddle of Catilina's about a head on a shrunken body and a body without a head: an anonymous, decapitated corpse. But the mystery surrounding this series of corpses--there'll be two others, both headless--is less important than Gordianus' increasingly complex relation to charismatic Catilina, who not only accepts his bespoken hospitality but seduces the loyalty of his adopted son Meto and wins as well the puzzled respect of Gordianus, who watches Cicero's ascendancy over Catilina with wary ambivalence and ends up fighting quixotically at Meto's side in the climactic battle of Pistoria before finally solving the riddle of the headless corpses. Saylor's fashionably inconclusive reading of the conspiracy throws both antagonists, Cicero and Catilina, into bold relief. The result is a spacious, provocative portrait of a fictional detective confronted with a historical mystery finally beyond his powers. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gordianus the Finder, Saylor's world-weary sleuth, strives to keep aloof from the complex politics of republican Rome. After years of investigative work for Cicero, Crassus, and others, Gordianus has become a gentleman farmer in Etruria, where he contends with more commonplace problems like drought and conniving neighbors. Suddenly Gordianus finds himself pulled back into Roman politics, and headless bodies begin to turn up on his farm. Saylor ( Arms of Nemesis , St. Martin's, 1992) carefully plots this novel and accurately depicts Roman society; his attentive study of Roman history and culture is evident throughout. The characters are believable and well delineated. Some minor criticisms: Saylor does not always take care to present historical data naturally, and several overlong conversations on Roman politics interrupt the flow of the story and are in fact historical minilectures directed at the reader. Nevertheless, this is recommended for general collections.
- James F. DeRoche, Alexandria, Va.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Set in ancient Rome, the latest in Saylor's carefully researched historical mystery series centers on the age-old theme of politics. Even in 63 B.C., it seems, ambitious, clever, scheming, scamming politicians flourished. Take Gordianus, a Roman citizen turned gentleman farmer who has fled noisy, crowded Rome to seek peace in the Etruscan countryside. To his chagrin, Gordianus finds he can't escape the intrigues and influences of the city as easily as he had hoped. He becomes embroiled in a bitter political rivalry between his patron, Cicero, and a clever up-and-comer, Catilina. Saylor has written a sweeping and marvelously evocative story, with page after page of authentic detail and meticulous descriptions of the people, places, and politics of early Rome. If there's a fault, it's the overemphasis on ambience and atmosphere, leaving a story that's occasionally slow to develop. There's no doubt that history buffs will savor the splendid historical detail, but mystery fans looking primarily for fast pacing and lots of action may lose interest. Emily Melton