The Venus Throw (Roma Sub Rosa)

Steven Saylor's historical mysteries set in ancient Rome and featuring investigator Gordianus the Finder enjoy a widespread following in America. Robinson is publishing the whole series - five novels to date - in the UK. The Venus Throw is the fourth novel in the series to be published in Britain. The fifth, Murder on the Appian Way, is available in hardback or paperback. On a cold January evening in 50 BC, two strangers enter Rome - one an Egyptian ambassador, the other a eunuch priest. Both are seeking Gordianus the Finder, who has a reputation for solving murders. But the ambassador, a philosopher named Dio, asks for something that Gordianus cannot give him - help to stay alive. Before the night is out, Dio is brutally assassinated. Now Gordianus begins the most dangerous case of his career. Hired to investigate Dio's murder by a beautiful woman with a scandalous reputation, he must follow a trail of intrigue into the highest circles of political power and the city's secret arenas of debauchery. There he will learn that nothing is as it seems - not the damning evidence he uncovers, nor the suspect he sends to trial, nor the real truth behind Dio's death which is shrouded in secrets of the heart as well as the state. Saylor brings the people and the politics of Ancient Rome to convincing life, in the middle of a fast-moving and compelling mystery.