"In This Sign, Conquer"Classical Whodunnits
In Alexandria during the reign of Constantine, Egyptian physician
Theocritas Amun-Arten has just six overnight hours to discover who
committed a locked-room murder and stole a valuable ancient map in
the famous library. [★★★+]
"Imogen"Shakespearean Whodunnits
Imogen, the leading character from Shakespeare's play
Cymbeline, sifts her memories concerning
the real events of the story. [★★★+]
"Mother of Rome"Shakespearean Whodunnits
Taking up where Shakespeare's Coriolanus leaves off,
Titus Lartius investigates the true cause of the death of the
title character, sticking mostly to Shakespeare's vision of Rome.
[★★]
"The Last Legion",The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits: A New Collection
On the orders of Emperor Honorius, Britain's last legion is shortly to
pull out when murder and theft strike the legion. The rascally
Silanus Gaius Escobinius, aka Spiro, a Celtic legionary, is ordered to
use magic to find the rather obvious culprits. A reluctant detective,
he is aided by his wife Gwynedd in this dramatic and humorous
tale which will probably mostly appeal to the male audience.
[★★★]
"Merchants of Discord",
Crime Through Time III
Decurion Quintus Vestinus Corvus investigates crime that results from
the squabblings of long-distance merchants at his post near Hadrian's Wall.
Claims to be set in the first century AD, but placement at Hadrian's Wall
is clearly impossible as it was not even begun until 122 AD.
There is a strong feeling of a fantasy medieval setting.
Not clear that the story "plays fair" on a mystery basis.
[★★+]
"Three Meetings and a Funeral"Shakespearean Detectives
Lucillus, sham soothsayer and speaker of the famous words
"Beware the Ides of March", overhears a conspiracy that makes him investigate
whether something more than politics was behind Caesar's death.
Marcus Antonius, Brutus, Cassius, Calpurnia et al. also appear.
Inspired by Julius Caesar.
[★+]
"A Pomegranate for Pluto",Classical Whodunnits
At Misenum in the time of Caligula, Hengist (a Celt, despite the
Anglo-Saxon name), former gladiator and current wineshop keeper in
Pompeii, investigates a mysterious death following a tempestuous
dinner. [★★★★]
"The Brother in the Tree"Classical Whodunnits
During the reign of Domitian, Epictetus, Greek philosopher of
Nicopolis (in Epirus of northwest Greece), forays into the world
of horror as well as that of Stoic philosophy. [★★+]
"The Gift of Minerva"Sword and Sorceress X
During the First Punic War, when sailing from the island of
Phaneraia to Panormus, Cynthia, witch of Syrakuse, is asked
to identify the on-board murderer of a Carthaginian returning
home on the ship of his Roman friend, Caius Duilius Nepos.
[★★★]
"Cinna the Poet",
Shakespearean Whodunnits
The father of the deceased poet, Publius Oppius Cinna,
investigates the circumstances of his death during the riots
following the assassination of Julius Caesar. [★]
"A Good Report of the Worm",
Shakespearean Detectives
A Greek, a clerk named Philocleon, is ordered by a Roman army tribune to
write a report explaining the death of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus,
Marc Antony's former chief-of-staff who defected to Octavius. Trying
to complete the report turns up one oddity after another, raising
questions of treachery and conspiracy.
Inspired by Antony and Cleopatra.
[★★+]
"The Ass's Head",Classical Whodunnits
In Roman Britain in the early days of Christianity, the granddaughter
of legate Cassius Marcellus Flavian is kidnapped and young decurion
Marcus Gordius Octavio must investigate. Based on The
Christians as the Romans Saw Them by Robert L. Wilken (1984).
[★★]
"Blind Justice",The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits: A New Collection
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (35-95 AD), aka Quintilian, the
rhetorician, teacher and writer (Institutio Oratoria)
is the detective and lawyer working a parricide case on
behalf of a friend of the accused. His secretary Plautus
Maximilianus Aureus acts as his "Watson". The author's understanding
of Roman personal names is a bit hazy and the identity of
the culprit far too obvious, but the feeling of the Roman
court comes through strongly.
[★★+]
"Four Hundred Slaves",Adventure, volume 1
An heroic detective sets out to save not just one unjustly
accused slave, but also all his fellows.
[not yet available for review]
"The Boudicca Killing",Winter's Crimes 11
A Roman investor has made a shocking profit in the wake of the
Boudiccaean Revolt – the Colonel of Arcani is sent to
forbidding Britannia Province to investigate. [★★★]
"Beauty More Stealthy",Classical Whodunnits
John the Eunuch has only one night to discover the murderer
of a wealthy noble lady married to a barber. Third in the series. [★★+]
"A Byzantine Mystery",The
Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits
During the Nika Riots, Justinian gives his Lord Chamberlain, John the Eunuch,
just twenty-four hours to recover a stolen reliquary containing
a splinter from the True Cross. First in the series. [★]
"Leap of Faith",
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, November 1998
John the Eunuch has until sundown to explain the death of a
controversial stylite or otherwise take his place living at
the top of a forty-foot marble column. The Empress Theodora appears.
Fourth in the series. [★]
"A Mithraic Mystery",The
Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives
John the Eunuch enters a world of byzantine plots and counterplots
when he investigates a murder in the mithraeum, holy place of Mithraism,
at the behest of the Empress Theodora. Second in the series. [★★]
"Beware the Snake",
Down these Strange Streets
At the behest of Julius Caesar,
Senator Decius Caecilius Metellus, with his wife
Julia and slave sidekick Hermes, investigates the disappearance
of a snake sacred to the Marsi. Besides the Marsi and ancient views
on snakes, also delves into Roman customs in personal naming.
Julius Caesar appears.
[★★★★]
"Etruscan House, The",
Crime Through Time II
His aedileship over, Senator Decius Caecilius Metellus investigates
the death of a senator in Rome amid political controversies.
Marcus Antonius, Cicero, Pompeius, Metellus Scipio and Cato appear.
[★★+]
"The Statuette of Rhodes,"
Classical Whodunnits
After just barely escaping his last adventure in
The Temple of the Muses, Senator Decius Caecilius
Metellus arrives expecting to spend a holiday of dissipation in
Rhodes when, near the ruins of the famous Colossus, he discovers a
corpse. [★★★]
"Venus in Pearls" Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, July-August 2001
Although somewhat tired of being Gaius Julius Caesar's dogsbody, Decius agrees to
find his pearly breastplate in advance of the Triumph. Caesar's grand-niece
Julia also appears. The titular Venus statue does not appear to be historical.
[★★+]
"Mosaic",Classical Whodunnits
Libertus, freedman and mosaic maker, in Glewaw (Gloucester),
Britain, some time after the Roman conquest, is ordered by the
proconsul (governor) to investigate the murder of his patron. [★★★]
"Archimedes' Tomb" Crime Through Time A Gladiator Dies Only Once
While on business in Sicily, Gordianus (and Eco) run into the
proconsul (governor), Cicero who commissions them to discover the lost
location of Archimedes' tomb. They find more than just the tomb.
Cicero's secretary Tiro appears.
[★★★+]
"The Cherries of Lucullus" A Gladiator Dies Only Once
Lucullus, conqueror of Asia, has some concerns relating back to the wars with Sertorius
and Mithridates that he wishes to discuss with Gordianus in this 50-page story.
Cicero, Lucullus appear.
[★★★+]
"The Consul's Wife" Crime Through Time III A Gladiator Dies Only Once
A blind item in the Acta Diurna has put the consul in fear of
his life before the next chariot race. Decimus Junius Brutus,
an elderly adherent of Sulla known for his accomplishments in
Greek and Latin letters and the courts appears, as does his wife
Sempronia, described by Sallust as a woman of cultured tastes
which did not omit intrigue.
[★★★★]
"If a Cyclops Could Vanish in the Blink of an Eye" Candis, September 2002
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 2003
Gordianus investigates the disappearance of the youthful Eco's toy monsters,
perhaps similar to those found in this
board game.
The return to the detective's naiver days is quite pleasant.
[★★★]
"Ill Seen in Tyre" Rogues, 2014
This story is posited as previously-unrevealed episode in the author's
The Seven Wonders
novel set in 92 BC. Gordianus and his teacher, the poet
Antipater of Sidon, visit ancient Tyre, intend to buy magic
spells and potion recipes and muse on the legends of
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser
(creations of fantasy author Fritz Lieber).
[★★★]
"The Monumental Gaul", Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 2011
In 91 BC Gordianus, traveling with
Antipater of Sidon,
visits
Rhodes
to see the famous
Colossus,
staying with the polymath
Posidonius.
A druid, a Gallic warrior, a student, a slave and a ticket-taker
round out the cast. Though not even a detective yet, the 18-year
old faces the murder of a slave, vandalism of a statue and unwanted
sexual advances. Also includes the first mention of the hero's father.
Part of
The Seven Wonders.
[★★★★]
"O Tempora! O Mores! Olympiad!",
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 2012
In 92 BC, Gordianus and Antipater reach the
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
just as the Olympics begin. A Cynic and a
pankration specialist play prominent roles while Mithridates
lurks in the background. Part of
The Seven Wonders.
[***]
"Poppy and the Poisoned Cake",
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, December 1998
Crème de la Crime The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits: A New Collection
Just two years after the Spartacan revolt, Gordianus takes on a very
hush-hush poisoning case from Censor Lucius Gellius Publicola
(here rendered "Poplicola"), in which it appears that the Censor has
nearly been poisoned by his son. After Gordianus solves it with relative
ease, he gets a hard lesson on the inner workings of power in the Republic.
[★★★]
Something Fishy in Pompeii Candis, July 2003
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March-April 2004
A Gladiator
Dies Only Once Coca-Cola was not the first company
to worry about its secret recipe being stolen as even back
in ancient Rome the younger Gordianus had to investigate the
copying of a very special quality garum. The B plot has
somewhat overtaken the mystery in this one however as there
isn't that much "finding" to do. By the way this method of
making sauce – a very important industry in what is now
Portugal – later made its way to China, no doubt over the
Silk Road, where it
was adapted and called
"ke tziap"
and eventually reached America as good old familiar "ketchup".
[★★+]
"Styx and Stones", Down These Strange Streets
The nineteen-year old Gordianus and his mentor, Antipater, visit the
ruins of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Ishtar Gate,
a ziggurat, and so on. While there they look into reports
of a temple ghost said to be the cause of two murders. Other
historical topics include astrology, lemures, Persian history and
ancient souvenir collecting. There is also discussion of
sacred prostitution, though
no evidence substantiating such practives has ever been
found (apart from often unreliable writers like Herodotus).
The story is at times a bit predictable and at other times implausible.
Part of
The Seven Wonders.
[★★+]
"The Widows of Halicarnassus", Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March/April 2012
In 92 B.C. at the famous
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
monument made by a widow for her husband, the Finder
and Antipater of Sidon encounter two widows and some of the more
unusual sides of Greek daily life, including prostitution.
Part of
The Seven Wonders.
[★★★+]
"The Witch of Corinth", Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/August 2011
In 91 BC Gordianus, traveling with
Antipater of Sidon,
attends an
Olympiad
and then on the way to Athens stops in to see the ruins of
Corinth,
destroyed by the Roman legions. Antipater recites some of his poetry
and there is murder among another Roman tour group as well as the
possibility of fantastical elements.
Part of the Seven Wonders of the World series.
[★★★★]
"The Gardens of Tantalus",Classical Whodunnits
In Corinth during the reign of Domitian, the philosopher
Apollonius of Tyana considers the death of a rich man at his
betrothal feast. [★★+]
"Convivium",Hardluck Stories, on-line 2007
A medicus investigates the theft of a dinner napkin and
the mysterious circumstances around it in the Londinium of AD 79.
Inspired by
poem 12
of
Catullus
in which he complains that his friend has stolen one of his
napkins, this rather erudite, yet noir, tale of a dinner party
is prequel to the novel
Nox Dormienda.
[★★★]
"The Favour of a Tyrant",
Classical Whodunnits
Archimedes investigates the sabotage of some of his work, as told
by his assistant, Phanes. Hieron, Tyrant of Syracuse and Lysander
the playwright appear. [★★★]
"Girl Talk",
Past Poisons: Brother Cadfael's Legacy Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 2000
Claudia once again runs into Marcus and their energy is quickly
devoted to solving a double case of decapitation as well as
finding a Marc Antony partisan and would-be assassin of Emperor Augustus.
[★★]
"Farmer's Law",
Crime Through Time III
In the rural Byzantine Empire of the eighth century, Father George
investigates a brutal murder as we learn something about the Greek language
and Byzantine legal system.
[★★★+]
Copyright (C) 1994-2014 by Richard M. Heli.
Permission granted to reprint so long as this notice is preserved in
its entirety and I am informed prior to the re-use. Published since June 1994.
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