David Wishart (1) (1952–)

One of the candidates for censor in the town of Castroemenium is murdered. Was it the rival candidate, the victim's fiancée, or someone else entirely? Marcus Corvinus, visiting his aunt-in-law, Marcia Fulvina, who lives nearby, is asked to help with the investigation.

Despite the rather heavy-handed way modern parallels are used for the relations between Latins and Romans as described here, I do love Marcus Corvinus's narrative voice.

Fictional memoir of the Roman poet Virgil. Quite fascinating and thought-provoking; the novel emphasizes Wishart's thesis that, as he puts it: "the last dozen lines of the Aeneid -- where Aeneas kills Turnus -- [are] filled with 'negative imagery' [which I took to mean unflattering to Augustus] and which "taken at face value pulls the plug on the whole poem." The novel recounts Virgil's life from boyhood to his final journey to Brindisi before his death. All through the novel Virgil show more excoriates Augustus [called herein by his real name Octavian] for what Virgil considers the latter's cowardice, moral ambivalence, opportunism, manipulation of people and events to suit himself, and duplicity. The story provides us with many examples both politically and from Virgil's own personal experience and ill treatment of family and friends. We are shown how Virgil is sucked into becoming Augustus's "court poet" by Maecenas, Augustus's master of propaganda. Loathing of Augustus comes out in some parts of the Aeneid. Virgil feels he is himself hypocritical, but he tries to write honestly. If people read the epic with nothing in mind other than surface narrative, they will miss hidden meanings and allusions he tells us.

Characters were fleshed out, especially the sympathetic Virgil. The story was believable. History was based on Aetius Donatus, the historian; but Virgil's personal life other than historical record was the author's creation. The novel was well written, but there were a few of Wishart's verbal curiosities. These occur in all his novels: e.g., Market Square=Forum; mantle=toga or stola as appropriate; Winter Festival=Saturnalia; Cattle-market Square=Forum Boarium. This novel is certainly worth reading and thoughtful. show less

In the next Marcus Corvinus adventure, Foreign Bodies, the new emperor Claudius requests some help looking into the death of a family friend. The unfortunate victim was living in Lugdunum, in the wilds of Gaul, and Marcus and Perilla set off traveling on Claudius’ expense account.

Obviously we all love Clau-Clau-Claudius from Robert Graves I,Claudius (Well, not all of us, not my husband, an uncultured lout who wandered away during “don’t touch the figs”), and Wishart’s emperor show more Claudius is cut from the same autocratic and mildly absent-minded cloth. Or wait, is Claudius just pretending to be fuzzy-headed while actually playing his own clever game? With Claudius, you never know.

Almost immediately, Marcus and Perilla encounter a handsome and egocentric Greek doctor, Domitius Crinas, also heading to the distant provinces on Claudius’ command. Crinas immediately suggests Marcus improve his health by cutting back on the wine, and almost as quickly volunteers to take Perilla sight-seeing. Poor Marcus, down to a strict limit of 4 cups of wine a day, finds himself third-wheeling on Perilla and Crinas’ cultural adventures.

After reading so many Marcus Corvinus adventures, I worried that these would start to be a bit formulaic. I’d be happy to read a dozen tales of Marcus Corvinus stumbles on a corpse, Perilla suggests dropping the case just this once, Marcus goes to investigate a very important lead in a wine-shop, Bathylus and/or Meton scolds him for coming back late, Perilla looks up from her scroll long enough to point Marcus towards the solution, etc., etc., but I was even more excited as this story veered further away.

As usual, Wishart leads readers to a surprising and satisfying conclusion. After the big reveal, it’s easy to see the hints and clues along the way, but I was pretty surprised by the (uh, how to say this in a spoiler-free way?) secret identity.

Foreign Bodies by David Wishart will be released on September 1, 2016 show less

Fairly fresh from the enjoyable Food for the Fishes, a later Marcus Corvinus mystery, I was curious about how this series began. Whoever reads any novels in this series has to accept Wishart's Roman world as is, also his deliberately anachronistic dialogue, narration, and inner monologues of Marcus, the Senatorial protagonist and narrator--a "broad-striper". Marcus is a party animal. He is not interested in pursuing the politics and promotions of the 'cursus honorem'. I liked Marcus, a show more wine-quaffing Mickey Spillane or Sam Spade in the Rome of Tiberius. The emperor is irreverently nicknamed "The Wart" by Marcus.

The poet Ovid's stepdaughter, the Lady Perilla, asks Marcus to help bring the deceased Ovid's ashes back to Rome from Tomi on the Black Sea, the place of the poet's exile. She wants to give them a proper internment on Roman soil. From that simple request, the plot becomes more and more convoluted. Marcus agrees to help, is stonewalled by bureaucracy, and uncovers a plot involving the imperial family. Marcus escapes death several times as the mystery deepens. Marcus also finds links connecting the intrigue, the Teutoberg Forest Massacre, and the Roman commander of the three legions in Germany, Quinctilius Varus. There are the usual clues, red herrings, and dead bodies. With so many disparate plot strands, I wondered how the author would pull everything together to make sense. He created a logical plot from the few simple facts that are known historically, filling in gaps fictionally.

I liked Marcus's thinking things out and trying to put two and two together. He wasn't afraid to express any uncertainties. The Lady Perilla was no slouch, either. I got a good picture of the Roman patron-client relationship.

I highly recommend this to those wanting to read good escapist historical mystery fiction. show less