Roman Games

By Bruce Macbain

A crime novel set in Ancient Rome. A city under the thrall of a tyrant, where deceit and death walk hand-in-hand.

DECEIT, TYRANNY, DEATH.

Games the Romans play best.

Sextus Ingentius Verpa, imperial senator, notorious informer and scheming minion of the despotic Emperor Domitian, has been butchered in the night.

The Emperor has decreed that punishment will be swift and has commissioned Gaius Plinius Secundus – better known as Pliny the Younger – to investigate. Pliny is no detective, but unless he can find the murderer by the close of the 'Ludi Romani', or Roman Games, all Verpa's slaves – forty men and women – will be burned alive in the arena.

That gives Pliny just fifteen days. Fifteen days that will threaten Pliny's conscience, his life and the stability of Rome itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Sep 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781908800961

Bruce Macbain

Bruce Macbain holds a BA in Classics from the University of Chicago and a PhD. in Ancient History from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught Greek and Roman history at Vanderbilt and Boston University. He lives with his wife in Brookline, MA.

Reviews for Roman Games

[limelite_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Historically, mildly interesting; novelistically, not so much. Pliny Secundus is appointed a special investigator into the murder of the dissolute and little loved imperial informer, Verpa. There are plenty of suspects, plenty of red herrings, and plenty of Latin vocabulary larding the pages.Sadly there is little vividness in the writing which at time is overwhelmed by pedantry. Real historical characters other than Pliny walk through the book. One of them is Martial, the Roman epigrammist who seeks to make himself the protege of the wealthy and connected Pliny. The device doesn't really add to the heft of the novel; Martial seems to have been introduced as Pliny's possible sidekick but ends up feeling like a walk-on or a one man Greek chorus in the story. This is a novel one wants to really like but the impression is that increased editing and pruning would have made that easier for readers. It might be worthwhile for readers enamored of novels set in ancient Roman to stick around a read more Pliny stories to see if Macbain's skills as a novelist grow and develop.

[tomspisak · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Though dealing with approximately the same period, this first entry is much drier than Lindsey Davis' Flavia Alba series.

[nanajlove_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Murder and mystery in ancient times. Not a bad read, although slightly predictable, with the "ah ha" moments in all the usual places. There are a multitude of characters that could be more developed to create more substance, or eliminated completely for the sake of cohesion.