Customer Reviews

SPQR XIII: The Year of Confusion: A Mystery

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is 45 BC and an increasingly regal Caesar is busily reorganizing Rome, including summoning a conclave of astronomers to reform the Roman calendar. When one of these astronomers is mysteriously murdered, Caesar assigns our hero, Decius Caecilius Metellus, to investigate. As always, Decius is a wide ranging and thorough investigator, traveling throughout Rome, interviewing everyone from Cleopatra to racing touts, turning up many overlapping mysteries and minor crimes until he succeeds in resolving the main mystery.

As usual in the series, Decius sets a light tone, bantering casually through Rome's highest social circles. However, behind the light mood, there are many darker notes. For example, it slowly becomes clear that Decius is now the last survivor of his formerly powerful family and he needs to move with more care than before. Decius gently touches on the various ambitious politicians orbiting around Caesar amidst hints of emerging conspiracies.

The murder mystery is adequate but the real fun comes from touring Rome with Decius, seeing its sights and studying its ways. A good four stars.

Quick historical note: Although Decius is fictional, the Caecilii Metelli were real. In their day they were one of the greatest of the plebian families, with at least ten "Quintus Caecilius Metellus"es becoming consul, but they vanished from history after siding against Caesar in the Civil War. Our fictional Decius may owe his survival to his happy marriage to Julia, a (fictional) niece of Caesar.

I enjoy this series as much as any I've found. I like the mysteries themselves and the characters are interesting and well drawn - no cartoon-ish shortcuts. There is an underlying wry sense of humor that I find irresistible as well. As to the history, I have checked and double checked and Roberts knows his stuff. To the extent we have documentation, he's spot on. Where there's room for interpretation, he goes for it. His view of Caesar - the main character is married to Caesar's niece and has been part of the Senatorial class with Caesar all along the way - is pretty great. And I'd bet pretty darned accurate, if truth be told. I recommend this entire series to any mystery lover. If you like historical mysteries, you'll be delighted. and if you have a sense of humor, they are even better. I've found the SPQR series an interesting contrast with Steven Saylor's more serious books set in the same era. Frequently they have taken an opposite view of an historical character - but, while I enjoy the Saylor books - I more than enjoy SPQR. I buy them new, in hard cover when they come out and I can't give higher praise than that to any writer. Try them, you'll like them. I own them all and can't wait for more to come.

In the year 46 BC in Rome, Caius Julius Caesar is now the Director of Rome. He plans to rebuild the city making it grander as expected of the capital of a great empire. One of his pet projects is to create a new calendar using astronomers and astrologers from around the world. Thus he appoints Senator Decius Caecilius to oversee the project alongside of Cleopatra's head astronomer Sosigenes.

At first Decius is more concerned with Cleopatra being in the city than he is of a bunch of scientists creating a new calendar. However the situation turns dangerous when an astronomer Denades is murdered with his neck broken. He has strange markings on his neck but the doctor feels it it hard to judge how the killer made them. Even the Chief Physician in Rome does not how the killer was able to extinguish is prey. Caesar orders Decius to find the killer, which proves difficult to accomplish because all suspects are lying about something or concealing something.

As always John Maddox Roberts writes a fantastic Ancient Roman mystery that gives the reader a sense of the era and the culture during the time of Caesar. This enables the audience to envision the City-State Empire warped inside a whodunit. Decius is a great detective, whose investigation is all the more remarkable because of the limitations of sleuthing in the first century BC. Sub-genre fans will enjoy joining him on his inquiry.

Harriet Klausner

Like its main character, the SPQR series is starting to show its age. Decius Metellus has lost a step or two and so too has the author. Other reviewers have noted the lack of a tie-in to major events--it's a serious detriment that makes this mystery far less engaging than most of the series. I would go so far as to say the ending was flat and disappointing.

It isn't bad, it just seems to have less of what Roberts usually provides: wit, pace and interesting twists. By all means give it a try, but wait for the paperback, or check it out of the library.

Someone is murdering Dictator Julius Caesar's astronomers, and Senator Decius Metellus is ordered to find out who and why. (Julius Caesar has commissioned the world's great astronomers to design the Julian calendar, which is the calendar still in use in the present day.) This is the time of Caesar the Dictator at the close of the true Roman Republic. Without giving too much away, the strength of this story is Decius' interaction with historical figures such as Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus, Marcus Antonius, and others. The actual detective story here, while not bad, is somewhat murky, and I doubt that many readers will be able to figure out the whodunnit aspect of the novel. Much more interesting are the author's speculations concerning the nature of Caesar and the historic personages who opposed him. Here, I think that the author shows considerable insight. With Caesar, absolute power is well on the way to corrupting absolutely, as Caesar increasingly behaves as a king. Caesar is planning to make war on the Parthians, who mean Rome no harm, simply to aggrandize himself and outshine Alexander the Great.

At least for now, this is the final installment in Roberts' "SPQR" series. I would like to read more of Decius Metellus, so I hope that there are more novels to come. Highly recommended. RJB.

Julius Caesar is intent on making his mark on Rome. As both dictator and Pontifex Maximus, he has his hands full, so he calls on Decius Metellus to help with one key move, his calendar reform. The Roman calendar has slipped out of synch so badly that year-end festivals are now held in the fall. Caesar brought back a host of astronomers from Alexandria and they've come up with a new calendar, but Romans don't like change and don't like foreigners. It's up to Decius to make it happen.

Calendar reform doesn't make Decius popular, but when astronomers start being murdered, he's the man on the spot to investigate.

Decius's investigations take place against the backdrop of late Republican politics. Caesar has been generous and forgiving, meaning that Rome is full of his enemies. Rather than gratitude, those enemies are plotting against him and looking for every angle of attack. One of those angles is Caesar's Egyptian connection. And Romans have always feared Egypt. It's so wealthy that its ruler could practically own Rome, and now Caesar is its ruler.

A host of historical characters, Caesar himself, Brutus, Casius, Marcus Antonius make their appearances as Decius tries to get the bottom of the murders. But it's the women, mothers and wives and lovers, who drive the story forward. In the meantime, Decius sees Caesar making more and more questionable decisions as he prepares for a war against Parthia...a war that Decius fears will go no better for Caesar than it did for his former collegue, Crassus.

Author John Maddox Roberts writes a convincing story of Rome in the time of the dying Republic. Decius, with his love of wine and appreciation for beautiful women, makes for an interesting protagonist as well as for his viewpoint into the larger picture of Roman politics. Fans of Roman History as well as of Decius Metellus will enjoy this one.

The SPQR series of Roman Historical mysteries chronicles the career and adventures of one Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger, a fictional scion of a real Roman political family. John Maddox Roberts does an excellent job of drawing the reader into actual Republican Roman politics and History with entertaining characters and witty dialog- and an occasional gripping action scene.

What is nice about the series is that the History is accurate. In fact, many of the mysteries are "ripped from the headlines" or is that more "chipped from the tablets?"

Decius starts in 70 BC, with his first step upon the cursus honorum.

Here, in SPQR XIII, The Year of Confusion, Decius is now a senior Senator, serving as an aide to Julius Caesar, Dictator. Decius has the uncomfortable and difficult job of trying to explain Caesars new "Julian Calender" to the People of Rome, and smooth over the difficulties of a year with too few months, followed by a year with too many. Caesar did indeed consult with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria, and the problems and complaints with the new calendar which caused the "Year of Confusion" are historically correct.

But of course Decius gets drawn into a couple of particularly nasty murders, which of course involve characters from the highest levels of Roman society, including the seductive Cleopatra.

How Senator Decius Caecilius Metellus solves the murder without getting himself into even deeper hot water politically is the crux of this entertaining book.

I highly recommend the entire series.

The end is in sight, historically speaking, for John Maddox Roberts' SPQR series, and the action seems to be fading a bit too. "The Year of Confusion" sees protagonist Decius Caecilius Metellus working for Julius Caesar, now officially Dictator of Rome. An astronomer working on one of Caesar's pet projects--the revamping of the Roman calendar--is murdered, and Metellus and sidekick Hermes are ordered to investigate. More than many of its predecessors, "The Year of Confusion" is written very much as a police procedural, and provides the peculiar pleasures that go with that kind of crime/mystery writing. Author Maddox Roberts spends less time in developing the novel's characters here than assigning them roles to play.

When the procedurals are finished, the book's ending is a bit of a letdown. A lot of original possibilities have been constructed along the way, but the closer is pretty humdrum. Still, it's an enjoyable tale with familiar characters (if you've been following the series). Good enough to keep me interested and looking for SPQR XIV.

John Maddox Roberts is a great writer and I love the SPQR series. Now that I finished SPQR XIII I will have to wait and hope for XIV.

I've read all the books in the series, more than once, and I've enjoyed every one. I highly recommend them all.