Hooked on Classics, yet again
I can justify this post to myself as advance promotion for my Elgin Marbles romance, The Edge of Impropriety , due out in mass paperback next spring -- or as a warning that you might want to bu y it now, with its gorgeous trade cover while they last... But really, it's pure delicious escapism that's plummeted me into the midst of Steven Saylor 's fabulous Roma Sub Rosa mystery series, set during the final years of the Roman Republic and teaching me oodles about a history I find increasingly fascinating. And, I should add, featuring a detective hero I'm entirely smitten with. Gordianus the Finder is not only smart and sensual, he's deeply good and deeply inquisitive about his world. Besides his intelligence, Gordianus's major asset seems to be what he learned during his youthful wanderings outside of Rome, particularly in Alexandria, where Greek culture and Asian mystical traditions have taught him something about the provincialism of his own world (and where he...