All Roads Lead to Murder: A Case From the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger [Hardcover]

Albert A. Bell Jr. (Author), William Martin Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2002

First-century Smyrna comes alive as the scene of a horrific murder. Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, and Luke, travelers in a caravan bound for Rome, become investigators when no Roman magistrates are available. Suspects abound: gamblers, arcane priestesses and Christians. What is the secret of one of the victim'ss own slaves, a beautiful blond, and the German giant shadowing her?

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: High Country Publishers (January 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097130453X
• ISBN-13: 978-0971304536
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #660,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great new Roman mystery, December 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: All Roads Lead to Murder: A Case From the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger (Hardcover)

If a writer wants to introduce a new series in the somewhat crowded field of Roman mysteries, he'd better have a unique twist. Albert Bell has done that. Instead of fictional sleuths, he uses historical characters, Pliny the Younger and the historian Tacitus, in the first of what promises to be a fine series. Bell combines historical knowledge, witty writing, and a plot with just enough complications and suspects to lead to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion. Pliny and Tacitus have to find out who murdered a man travelling with them while also protecting a beautiful young slave girl who may be the killer's next victim. I can't wait for the next one!

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a fresh take on Roman mysteries, December 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: All Roads Lead to Murder: A Case From the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger (Hardcover)

The field of mysteries set in ancient Rome is a bit crowded, with Davis, Saylor, and Roberts, but this new entry deserves to take its place at the head of the line. It features an historical character, Pliny the Younger, with his friend the historian Tacitus playing the Dr. Watson role. While traveling back to Rome in a caravan in 83 AD, they stop overnight in Smyrna. The next morning they discover that a member of the caravan has been brutally murdered. Suspects abound: a gambler who was in debt to the victim, a group of women who may be involved in occult practices, an abused slave, and several others. With no Roman magistrates on the scene, Pliny takes charge of the investigation. He soon realizes that the case is more complicated than at first appears. He must find the killer because he himself may have been the intended victim. First rate!

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars P:liny the Younger and Tacitus as Sleuths? You bet, December 24, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: All Roads Lead to Murder: A Case From the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger (Hardcover)

High Country Publishers has won another great author from the larger publishing houses. Albert Bell asked an Internet mystery-discussion board for the name of a publisher for his sixth book, a historical mystery set in the Roman Empire of the first century CE [although the tone of this book begs the more traditional AD]. Bell found HCP's Senior Editor, a Roman history buff, and HCP is bringing out ALL ROADS next year.

Bell, an internationally published biblical scholar, writes historical mystery fiction for fun. His present book is more than fun.

Our sleuth is the Roman epistolist and administrator Pliny the Younger, backed up by Tacitus the historian, both at the beginnings of their careers, on the road home from their first political posts. For safety, Pliny and Tacitus join a larger group of travelers, who, it turns out, have come together not entirely by coincidence. Cornutus, traveling with a crowd of domestic help, catches our attention immediately by threatening to strike a clumsy slave. Nobody would notice if Chryseis weren't young, beautiful and blonde. When Cornutus is found dead in his bed in a Smyrna inn, with the heart cut out of his chest, everyone's mind goes back to that incident on the road.

Bell treats us to a complex confection of intrigue served up with blood-red herrings and social questions, in an authentic ambiance of Roman imperial politics. Modern sensibilities are catered to by young Pliny's doubts about the ethics of public executions and slave ownership--doubts that the historcial Pliny expresses in his oeuvre--set against the fact that in his time, no major culture in the world had yet questioned either institution seriously. For this purpose, Bell includes a pair of Christians among the travellers, a Christian household where Chryseis finds a hiding place, and a mass execution scene in Smyrna's amphitheater.

Bell's success with this story comes partly from knowledge of his topic, and partly from storytelling choices and engaging characters.