| Welcome to vBulletin FAQ |
vBulletin FAQ Navigation
Getting Started
Customizing your vBulletin
Search Engines & SEO
Making Money with a Forum
Promoting your Community
|
| Get your own vBulletin Today |
|
| Webmaster Help |
|
|
|
The Legatus Mystery (Libertus Mystery Series)
vBulletin Book Store > vBulletin books beginning with L
|
The Legatus Mystery (Libertus Mystery Series) |
Author: Rosemary Rowe
Published: 2003-09-01 |
List price: $9.99
Our price: $9.99
|
Usually ships in 24 hours
As of: December 04th, 2008 08:24:11 PM
|
|
|
Customer comments on this selection.
 Another Excellent Offering in the Libertus Mysteries
Rosemary Rowe is the pseudonym of Rosemary Aitken, a highly qualified academic, who has written more than half a dozen bestselling textbooks on English Language and communication. She has written fiction for many years under her married name.
br /
br /The murdered body of a visiting ambassador from Rome brings preparations for the Emperor's birthday to an abrupt halt and yet again Libertus is called in to help in the investigations. The case becomes even more mysterious when the body disappears and then unearthly wails and mysterious bloodstains start to appear from nowhere.
br /
br /The townspeople, already riddled with their own superstitions are gripped with terror and Libertus finds himself in extreme danger when he becomes the target of an angry mob, accusing him of angering the gods and demanding his death in an attempt to appease them. Nothing is as it appears and Libertus begins to uncover more unsettling events and yet more deaths before the truth can finally be revealed.
br /
 Libertus flounders
Rowe's latest Libertus offering - `The Legatus Mystery'- proves the weakest to date. I'm not sure why but the entire effort is somewhat muddied, probably because Rowe allows Libertus to lose the normally cool-headed thought process and end up supernaturally confused and fleeing for his life from an misguided Glevum mob who believe that he's brought the wrath of the Gods down on them. All of which throws us out of kilter and turns him nearly into an emotional wreck. Very un-Libertus-like.brThis fifth installment has our sleuth returning from London with his `wife' Gwellia, to be ordered to uncover the amazing case of the vanishing corpse from the inner sanctum of the temple as found by its sub-sevir, Meritus. Several others are in the frame, includng the Pontifex, Scribonius, Optimus, a lisping slave named somewhat unkindly by Libertus and Junio as Lithputh (though it does serve its own misleading purpose eventually), Hirsus and Trinculus. However, the plot takes more a case of discovering who the original body was - presumably an unknown missing legate, judging by the recovered ring - rather than concluding there actually was a murder and who the suspects were - and therein lies the key to the entire mystery.brSo, we actually get to see Libertus laying a mosaic, tentatively drag the usual adulterous Roman matron in to the script, have some further insights as to Libertus' new and changing relationships with both Gwellia and Junio, profess our usual irritation with Marcus who is becoming excellent at jumping to ridiculous conclusions whilst being prickly about insinuations of his stupidity by his client and stomp around a poorly portrayed temple before ucocvering the true murder and figuring out whodunnit.brWhat Rowe is extremely good at it sending the reader down a completely blind alley. When the deouement reveals the culprit(s) you instantly see where the obvious clues were, but she has ingeniously hidden them in plain sight - always the mark of a good murder mystery author. However, as I stated at the very first, this is the weakest to date and I confess I put it aside several times to read other novels before finally finishing. I assume it's merely a blip as every Roman sleuth has an off day, and that the next installment will be back to the promise offered in the first four.
|
|
Our vBulletin book picks:
|
|
Find more vBulletin related products of interest.
|
