Product Description

When Corvinus receives a letter, with a tantalising PS, from his adopted daughter, Marilla, mentioning there might have been a murder, he hot-foots it to Castrimoenium at once. Not that everyone agrees that Lucius Hostilius was murdered. Poison was apparently the means of death, but Lucius was terminally ill: it was only a matter of time. Although he hasn't any official investigative status, Corvinus can't resist doing a little amateur sleuthing. And he has barely begun when two other corpses turn up and he is formally on the case. Lucius had been suffering something of a personality change because of his illness, so there is no shortage of suspects among friends and family whom he had antagonised. But Corvinus goes up many a blind alley before arriving at the heart of the mystery. As we follow Marcus Corvinus, clue by clue, on his twelfth case, we allow ourselves to be pleasurably diverted by rumours of Meton's love life – and by an authentic recipe for fish pickle sauce . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27874 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 272 pages

Review
'Wishart's investigator pinches his conversation style and hardboiled wisecracking from classic Hollywood noir, which adds a charming incongruity to this entertaining whodunit. A sinuous plot and robustly drawn characters, including an uppity slave and a formidable widow, all add piquancy to this stew of small-town misdemeanours.' (Financial Times )

'This is a good, racy account of life in Roman times, with many excellent details of the intimacies of life . . . Corvinius is a fast talking, wisecracking detective, who inspires confidence in the reader that nothing much will get past his shrewd eye . . . This is an entertaining read, with many vivid and humorous characters who can be recognised as types universally known both in ancient Rome and today. The combination of a modern detective story with an informed and well-researched description of ancient Rome is a winner.' (Crimesquad )

'Ancient Rome's shrewdest and most sardonic detective . . . the best balance of mystery and history yet.' (Kirkus Reviews on PARTHIAN SHOT )

'Drawn with great dash, and the one-liners are as good as ever. Genius.' (Good Book Guide on A VOTE FOR MURDER )

'Like Chandler's Marlowe, Corvinus wisecracks his way through a weary world of murder and intrigue until he hunts down the truth. A taut thriller in which ancient Rome springs to life' (The Times on SEJANUS )

About the Author
David Wishart studied Classics at Edinburgh University. He then taught Latin and Greek in school for four years and after this retrained as a teacher of EFL. He lived and worked abroad for eleven years, working in Kuwait, Greece and Saudi Arabia, and now lives with his wife and family in Scotland.

Customer Reviews

Corvinus in the country
Marcus Valerius Corvinus has an inquisitive nature, a penchant for investigation, and the wealth to allow him to spend his time and energy following these. So when he gets a message from his adopted daughter who lives with an elderly relative in the country (don't ask, read enough of Wishart's Corvinus books and you'll be up to date with the family) about a possible murder he finds himself leaving Rome for what should be a quiet rural backwater.

He finds pleasant rural surroundings, nice scenery, fine wine (always an important factor for Corvinus) - and an ever more complicated situation of deaths, skulduggery, and betrayals which seems to stretch back two decades. The result is an entertaining mystery novel which should keep the reader engrossed and guessing right to the end.

As ever, Wishart takes us effortlessly into Roman life and times so that we see its laws and customs and how people thought and lived. The only gripe is the usual one - that the flippant use of anachronism in speech (mainly but not exclusively from Corvinus himself - perhaps a way of getting the modern reader to identify more with him?) is over the top. It cam be amusing - the scene where Corvinus interviews a retailer of slaves who has all the sales patter of a modern used-car salesman is very funny - but there is rather too much of it. This is a pity, and it's why this otherwise excellent read gets only four stars instead of five.

A comment from one of the characters pricked my interest as well. In an aside we learn that the Emperor Tiberius has died and Prince Gauis has recently ascended the throne. As Gaius is better known to history by his nickname Caligula, and he and Corvinus's paths have crossed in the past to their mutual dislike, this might make for some interesting developments in future novels...

back in the Alban Hills
Corvinus is back in the Alban Hills, investigating a suspicious death. As usual, questions abound. The widow's grief is clearly sincere, but why is she hiding so much? Why was the victim attacked in the street, six days before his death, by a man no one recognised? Why is his partner in the legal firm still so upset by the death, decades ago, of his first wife? There are more personal matters too. The Corvinus household is getting older; we seem to be about to lose one member to old age, while another is contemplating marriage. Young Clarus, Marilla's boyfriend, is introducing us to the Roman medical world and its increasing interest in the autopsy. But the two most pressing questions are; what are Gabba and the other lads at Pontius's wineshop up to in secret, and why has Meton, Corvinus's bolshie gorilla of a cook, taken to going out dressed in a clean tunic and wearing perfume? Corvinus thinks he has guessed the answer, but it's much more surprising than that....

One thing that's beginning to look interesting. We already know Corvinus has a horror of mental incapacity. Now once again, as in "Food for the Fishes", he says if he ever became mentally incapable he hopes someone would oblige him with a mercy killing. I'm beginning to wonder if Wishart is building up to confronting him with this problem close to home.

Not the all-time best from this series but well up to standard.

a very absorbing read
This fast paced and engrossing Marcus Corvinus installment finds Marcus and his wife, Perilla, visiting the small town of Castrimonenium, in order to figure out whether or not a local lawyer was murdered.

When Marcus and Perilla receive a letter from their adopted daughter, Marilla, intimating that a murder may have been committed in the town she's currently residing in, they immediately make for Castrimoneium in order to get more information. It turns out that the lawyer, Lucius Hostillius has succumbed to a heart seizure and has passed away. But Lucius' doctor, Hyperion, is not satisfied and fears that someone may have tampered with the dosage. The trouble is that in accordance of Roman law, if Hyperion voices his suspicions, Lucius' household slaves would be rounded up and tortured in order to prise information from them. And Hyperion would rather not say anything unless the evidence that Lucius had been "helped" to his death is conclusive. And so he asks Marcus Corvinus to look into the matter. But Marcus will have to work on the quiet so as not to arouse the interest of the authorities. Can our intrepid investigator pull this off?

I've been a fan of this series ever since I read "Ovid." But I have to admit that fan though I am, I haven't read every single installment in this series. What I have read I have liked immensely; finding the books to be well written, finely paced, taut and full of wonderful historical detail and ambiance. This is all true of "Illegally Dead." David Wishart does a first rate job here of executing and fleshing out this tale and of keeping one guessing as to what exactly is going on and who the guilty parties are. All in all this was a very engrossing and absolutely riveting read -- even as I confess that a couple of thing grated: namely that Marcus seemed to jump to some rather premature assumptions about his suspects based solely on his reactions towards them (and had to be talked around to sense by Perilla); and that I found Marcus' 'tough' street voice to be a little incongruous and a little false. Would a patrician have such a narrative voice? I'm going to have to reread "Ovid" in order to find out.