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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In A.D. 304, the historian Aelius Spartianus steps into a conspiracy spanning centuries in Pastor's satisfyingly convoluted historical, which ranges from Egypt to the villas and back alleys of imperial Rome. Researching a biography of the deified Hadrian, Aelius is curious about the drowning death of Antinous, the emperor's favored male consort. The historian learns of a letter from Hadrian, which hints at a plot against the empire, that may be interred with the youth in an unknown grave. A source soon suffers Antinous's watery fate in the Nile, and attempts on Aelius's life quicken. Pastor (Liar Moon) bases her characters, even Aelius, on historical personages and weaves strong threads of contemporary gay culture, Christian suppression and the Jewish revolt into an elaborately detailed canvas. As the search for Antinous's grave narrows, red herrings abound. The shadowy conspiracy against Rome ought to resonate powerfully with readers today. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Pastor specializes in historical mysteries with a military-occupation background. Her two most recent novels, Lumen (1999) and Liar Moon (2001), were set in Nazi-occupied Poland and Nazi-occupied Italy, respectively. Now, she reaches way back in history, all the way to AD 304, to provinces occupied by Roman garrisons in the time of the emperor Diocletian. Pastor's hero, Aelius Spartianus, is a former Roman soldier and current historian to Diocletian. The emperor summons Aelius to a garrison in Dalmatia--Pastor notes how barbers and "spotted dogs" are everywhere in Dalmatia: the first because the emperor abhors curls and bangs; the latter because he loves the intelligent dogs. From Dalmatia, Aelius is sent to Egypt to unearth any evidence pointing to the cause of the drowning death of the emperor Hadrian's male favorite. This being the ancient Roman Empire, past murder intersects with fresh murder and intrigues. Although the plot meanders, readers will be held by accounts of garrison and court life and by details about the crackdown on Christians. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
In A.D. 304, the historian Aelius Spartianus steps into a conspiracy spanning centuries in Pastor's satisfyingly convoluted historical, which ranges from Egypt to the villas and back alleys of imperial Rome. Researching a biography of the deified Hadrian, Aelius is curious about the drowning death of Antinous, the emperor's favored male consort. The historian learns of a letter from Hadrian, which hints at a plot against the empire, that may be interred with the youth in an unknown grave. A source soon suffers Antinous's watery fate in the Nile, and attempts on Aelius's life quicken. Pastor (Liar Moon) bases her characters, even Aelius, on historical personages and weaves strong threads of contemporary gay culture, Christian suppression and the Jewish revolt into an elaborately detailed canvas. As the search for Antinous's grave narrows, red herrings abound. The shadowy conspiracy against Rome ought to resonate powerfully with readers today. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Pastor specializes in historical mysteries with a military-occupation background. Her two most recent novels, Lumen (1999) and Liar Moon (2001), were set in Nazi-occupied Poland and Nazi-occupied Italy, respectively. Now, she reaches way back in history, all the way to AD 304, to provinces occupied by Roman garrisons in the time of the emperor Diocletian. Pastor's hero, Aelius Spartianus, is a former Roman soldier and current historian to Diocletian. The emperor summons Aelius to a garrison in Dalmatia--Pastor notes how barbers and "spotted dogs" are everywhere in Dalmatia: the first because the emperor abhors curls and bangs; the latter because he loves the intelligent dogs. From Dalmatia, Aelius is sent to Egypt to unearth any evidence pointing to the cause of the drowning death of the emperor Hadrian's male favorite. This being the ancient Roman Empire, past murder intersects with fresh murder and intrigues. Although the plot meanders, readers will be held by accounts of garrison and court life and by details about the crackdown on Christians. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
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