From Publishers Weekly
Saylor ( Arms of Nemesis ) has written another gripping and entertaining historical whodunit. Narrator Gordianus, disillusioned by the corruption of Rome circa 63 B.C., has fled the city with his family to live on a farm in the Etruscan countryside. But this bucolic life is disrupted by the machinations and murderous plots of two politicians: Roman consul Cicero, Gordianus's longtime patron; and populist senator Catalina, Cicero's political rival and a candidate to replace him in the annual elections for consul. Claiming that Catalina plans an uprising if he loses the race, Cicero asks Gordianus to keep a watchful eye on the radical. Although he distrusts both men, Gordianus is forced into the center of the power struggle when his six-year-old daughter Diana finds a headless corpse in their stable. Shrewdly depicting deadly political maneuverings, this addictive mystery also displays the author's firm grasp of history and human character. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Gordianus the Finder, Saylor's world-weary sleuth, strives to keep aloof from the complex politics of republican Rome. After years of investigative work for Cicero, Crassus, and others, Gordianus has become a gentleman farmer in Etruria, where he contends with more commonplace problems like drought and conniving neighbors. Suddenly Gordianus finds himself pulled back into Roman politics, and headless bodies begin to turn up on his farm. Saylor ( Arms of Nemesis , St. Martin's, 1992) carefully plots this novel and accurately depicts Roman society; his attentive study of Roman history and culture is evident throughout. The characters are believable and well delineated. Some minor criticisms: Saylor does not always take care to present historical data naturally, and several overlong conversations on Roman politics interrupt the flow of the story and are in fact historical minilectures directed at the reader. Nevertheless, this is recommended for general collections.- James F. DeRoche, Alexandria, Va.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Set in ancient Rome, the latest in Saylor's carefully researched historical mystery series centers on the age-old theme of politics. Even in 63 B.C., it seems, ambitious, clever, scheming, scamming politicians flourished. Take Gordianus, a Roman citizen turned gentleman farmer who has fled noisy, crowded Rome to seek peace in the Etruscan countryside. To his chagrin, Gordianus finds he can't escape the intrigues and influences of the city as easily as he had hoped. He becomes embroiled in a bitter political rivalry between his patron, Cicero, and a clever up-and-comer, Catilina. Saylor has written a sweeping and marvelously evocative story, with page after page of authentic detail and meticulous descriptions of the people, places, and politics of early Rome. If there's a fault, it's the overemphasis on ambience and atmosphere, leaving a story that's occasionally slow to develop. There's no doubt that history buffs will savor the splendid historical detail, but mystery fans looking primarily for fast pacing and lots of action may lose interest. Emily Melton


From Kirkus Reviews
Gordianus the Finder--legman and sleuth for the orator Marcus Tullius Cicero in Roman Blood (1991) and Arms of Nemesis (1992)--gets swept up in the epochal Catiline conspiracy in this ambitious crossover novel. Retired to an Etruscan farm left him by his benefactor Lucius Claudius, Gordianus already has his hands full with Lucius' surviving relatives--neighboring landowners contemptuous of Gordianus and covetous of the farm they regard as rightfully theirs. But Cicero, whose brilliant legal defense of Gordianus' claim won him the farm, wants to collect on the favor and sends his prot‚g‚ Marcus Caelius, who's wormed his way as a spy into the confidence of Cicero's powerful adversary Lucius Sergius Catilina, to ask Gordianus to make the farm available to Catilina as a retreat so that he too can report back to his wily old employer. When Gordianus hesitates, he finds on his land an omen that uncannily seems to echo a riddle of Catilina's about a head on a shrunken body and a body without a head: an anonymous, decapitated corpse. But the mystery surrounding this series of corpses--there'll be two others, both headless--is less important than Gordianus' increasingly complex relation to charismatic Catilina, who not only accepts his bespoken hospitality but seduces the loyalty of his adopted son Meto and wins as well the puzzled respect of Gordianus, who watches Cicero's ascendancy over Catilina with wary ambivalence and ends up fighting quixotically at Meto's side in the climactic battle of Pistoria before finally solving the riddle of the headless corpses. Saylor's fashionably inconclusive reading of the conspiracy throws both antagonists, Cicero and Catilina, into bold relief. The result is a spacious, provocative portrait of a fictional detective confronted with a historical mystery finally beyond his powers. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Gripping and entertaining . . . [An] addictive mystery."—Publishers Weekly

"Engrossing . . . Ironic and satisfying."—San Francisco Chronicle

"There's no doubt that history buffs will savor splendid historical detail."—Booklist



Book Description
"A sweeping and marvelously evocative story . . ." Booklist.A mystery of ancient Rome by the author of "Arms Of Nemesis." When Gordianus the Finder deserts the fierce intrigues of Rome for domesticity on an Etruscan farm, his brilliant patron, the orator Cicero, draws him back with a curious proposal: keep Catilina, Cicero's radical rival, under a watchful eye.Reluctantly, Gordianus complies -- and soon, despite himself, becomes intrigued by the notorious populist politician. Could Catilina really be conspiring against the Republic? Or are Cicero's accusation no more than vicious lies? Questioning his loyalty to his own patron, Gordianus comes to question even more when he discovers a headless corpse in his stables and is suddenly swept into a mystery more dangerous than any he has ever known.


From the Publisher
My high school Latin teacher -- Sister Ethelreda, are you out there in cyberspace? -- enthralled her class for four years with her tales of ancient Rome, from culinary trivia to the deeds of the noble generals and the great Roman patriots. It was her hope, as she said, not only to teach us this beautiful language but to be able to bring to life for us the people who formed the vibrant culture that was Rome's. I heard an echo of her words many years later when I read THE FAR ARENA, in which the protagonist wished earnestly to be able to turn a doorknob in time and find the Roman behind the door.

With Steven Saylor's mysteries, we have that Roman behind the door. Set in ancient Rome before the rise of Julius Caesar, these are not your usual cozy reads. His detective, Gordianus the Finder, seems a scruffy sort, not a noble Roman from the history books by any means, and his Rome is a rough-and-tumble place full of noisy street vendors and con artists as well as more well-to-do, upstanding citizens, a city full of gossip and intrigue and nasty politics as vicious as anything we see today. The noble Romans do appear in his books, of course, but they're a far cry from the bloodless statues who watch serenely from the covers of Latin books as students painstakingly translate their dry speeches. Marcus Tullius Cicero, for one, appears in CATILINA'S RIDDLE not as a statesman but as an underhanded schemer obsessed with destroying Lucius Sergius Catilina, who has gone down in history, rightly or wrongly, as a man who attempted to bring down the Roman Republic. You, the reader, will be left to judge.

--Margaret Sanborn, Senior Publicity Copywriter


From the Inside Flap
"A sweeping and marvelously evocative story . . ." Booklist.
A mystery of ancient Rome by the author of "Arms Of Nemesis."
When Gordianus the Finder deserts the fierce intrigues of Rome for domesticity on an Etruscan farm, his brilliant patron, the orator Cicero, draws him back with a curious proposal: keep Catilina, Cicero's radical rival, under a watchful eye.
Reluctantly, Gordianus complies -- and soon, despite himself, becomes intrigued by the notorious populist politician. Could Catilina really be conspiring against the Republic? Or are Cicero's accusation no more than vicious lies? Questioning his loyalty to his own patron, Gordianus comes to question even more when he discovers a headless corpse in his stables and is suddenly swept into a mystery more dangerous than any he has ever known.

FROM OUR EDITORS

In the year 63 B.C., Gordianus leaves behind the corruption of Rome and retires to a farm in the Etruscan countryside. His calm pastoral life is disturbed, however, when a newly elected consul asks him to spy on a rabble-rousing senator. Soon, Gordianus finds himself drawn into a violent power struggle on the eve of an election. Matters worsen when a corpse is found on his farm--and Gordianus must confront a deadly mystery that threatens his life.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With the consular election drawing near, Rome is fiercely divided between the conservative Cicero and the tempestuous Catilina, whose followers are rumored to be plotting a bloodthirsty siege for power if their leader fails to win office... Gordianus the Finder, retired to his Etruscan farm, is happy to be free of the intrigue and danger of the capital. But when his old friend Cicero enlists the Finder in an elaborate plot to control Catilina, Gordianus is drawn back into a familiar world. Now caught in a cloak-and-dagger political struggle for the fate of the Republic, Gordianus finds himself strangely drawn to the controversial candidate. Is Catilina really a subversive renegade, or are Cicero's suspicions part of an even greater conspiracy? When a headless corpse ominously appears on his farm, Gordianus knows he must unlock the secret of Catilina's Riddle before Rome tears herself apart.

FROM THE CRITICS

BookList - Emily Melton