A collection of short stories with simple, but well constructed plots, written in a entertaining style. I found this to be excellent travel reading. The characters of course lack the depth that they get in one of the longer books, they are quickly sketched. But they are believable. ( )

Amusing shorter stories. ( )

If you like to read series books in chronological order, read this as the second book in the Gordianus series. It was published later, I believe as the sixth in the series, but the events happen much earlier. ( )

"The House of the Vestals," by Steven Saylor, is a collection of short stories set in his Roma Sub Rosa series during an 8-year period (80-72 BCE) between the first and second novels in that series. Most of the stories were originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, which is where I read them first, but I quite enjoy having the stories all in one place, in chronological order. One great thing about Saylor’s work is that he always includes historical notes at the end of the book, and this collection is no exception; that addition really pleases the historian in me, while the stories themselves are both very entertaining and historically accurate. Highly recommended! ( )

This is a reasonably good and varied collection of mystery short stories set in Rome during the years 80 BC to 72 BC. For those who have read any of Steven Saylor's Roma sub rosa series of novels, these stories all fall into the time period following the first novel in the series, Roman Blood. Of the 9 short stories, all but one appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in the years 1993-1995. My knowledge of Roman history is pretty weak, and stories like these give me good glimpses into the times. I've only read two of Saylor's novels before this, and I enjoy learning the history within the stories and I plan on reading more of them. ( )