7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A tightly focused mystery, October 21, 2002
This review is from: Dark Horse (Hardcover)
The eighth installment of Todd's fine murder mystery series has Claudia running for the island of Cressia, to the villa of Leo Orbilio, cousin of Marcus, before she gets either convicted or murdered for blatant horse doping. During a period of a week an assortment of characters, including the unctuous Shamshi, the perfectionist Nikias, the aging Volcar, the `ice queen' Silvia, the enigmatic Clio, the somewhat `artistic' Saunio and a somewhat innocent dolphin flow through the villa which is undergoing an expensive refurbishment that is being financed by several people (We do see a way out for Claudia's perpetual financial difficulty with a chance for her to increase her famous Seferius wine yield in later novels)
The murders of Saunio's assistant Bulio and then Leo coupled with Todd's ensurement that every other character (save Drusilla the cat and the dolphin) has a motive to commit the deed, intermingled with a heavily-threaded plot line touching on the mythology of Jason, Medea and Circe, means that, unlike the previous Dream Boat, it is not quite so simple to make an educated guess as to the villain(s). Another technique that Todd has introduced over the recent additions to the series is a setup of periodic mini-chapters where we can glean an anonymous insight to the mind of the murderer(s). In this case it is very 'mythical' and it is, perhaps, a little laboured as the soliloquies lend themselves an almost supernatural evil air which doesn't quite fit with the period.
Nevertheless, Claudia rips through the entire bunch, (she always manages to get knocked out in the process of most of her investigations), captured by pirates and eventually Marcus has to turn up to help. The continuing fencing between the pair is mildly frustrating and you begin to hope their relationship might develop further over future novels.
It is Claudia's first trip outside Italy, albeit not very far from the province of Illyricum, and she moves neatly. The nature of this latifundia setting echoes Saylor's Arm of Nemesis, but retaining the culprits within a localized geographical area gives a chance for typical murder mystery characterization to develop and this becomes a tautly focused whodunnit.
I must confess I hope Marilyn Todd keeps writing about her delightful heroine for many years to come.
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