Old Bones

While on holiday in the Etrurian countryside, Corvinus's stepfather, is discovered standing over a man's body holding the murder weapon in his hand. The victim was deservedly very unpopular with his neighbours and had also threatened suicide.

I love Corvinus's narrative voice, and his mother and stepfather are always fun. I was shaking with laughter through a lot of this. Very interesting and unexpected solution.

Corvinus' amiable if slightly dotty stepfather is suspected of murder, and our hero sets out to clear his name. Like the rest of the series, this novel does a brilliant job of recreating Roman life in the tumultuous years that followed Augustus' death (life among the upper crust, at any rate). And Corvinus remains a most appealing hero -- lacking in any sense of civic duty, but with a keen interest in investigation, and a great line with a wisecrack. I prefer the ones where Corvinus gets involved with actual historical figures, but this is a good read.

FF: When Marcus Corvinus hears that his father-in-law, Priscus, has been accused of murder, it doesn't take Marcus long to get Priscus off the hook, but finding the real culprit proves tricky. Marcus uncovers a major wine-making fraud as well as a sorry tale of treachery, deceit and betrayal.