Showing results by author "John Maddox Roberts" in All Categories

In his extensive series featuring the detecting feats of Decius Caecilius Metellus the younger, set in the Rome of 70 BC, Roberts achieves a very believable modern feeling with his well-researched description of the stories' background. This seventh episode, however, combines a familiar view of the demands office-seeking makes on a candidate with a situation that is impossibly bizarre to us today. An entire city, versed in literature, music, and the other arts, ruled democratically, for its time, is thrown into panic by an enraged man's curse.

When Roman junior senator Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger has a chance to join a diplomatic mission to Alexandria, he welcomes the opportunity to temporarily elude his enemies in the Eternal City - even though it means leaving his beloved Rome. Decius is just beginning to enjoy the outpost's many exotic pleasures when the suspicious death of an irascible philosopher occurs, coinciding with the puzzling and apocalyptic ravings of a charismatic cult leader. Intrigued, Decius requests and is given permission by the Egyptian Pharaoh to investigate the heinous crime. What he discovers is beyond shocking.

Ancient Rome, in this accurate and evocative series, is just as politics driven as any major American city - possibly even more. Decius Caecilius Metellus has, through a series of rather wild adventure, and in the act of tracking down killers and other reprobates, barely escaped annhilation several times. Now, newly elected to the office of aedile, the lowest rung on the ladder of Roman authority, he must smoke out corruption and conspiracy that threaten to destroy all of Rome.

In this Edgar Award-nominated mystery, John Maddox Roberts takes listeners back to a Rome filled with violence and evil. Vicious gangs ruled the streets of Crassus and Pompey, routinely preying on plebeian and patrician alike. So the garroting of a lowly ex-slave and the disembowelment of a foreign merchant in the dangerous Subura district seemed of little consequence to the Roman hierarchy.

As I walked back through the City, my mood was moderately elevated. This appointment did not displease me nearly as much as I pretended. Like most Romans I abhorred the very thought of sea duty, but this was one of the rare occasions when I was looking forward to getting away from Rome..... For years I had complained of the disorder of the City, and now that it was gone, I found that I missed it. All the peace and quiet seemed unnatural. I did not expect it to last.- Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger in SPQR IX: The Princess and the Pirates.

Things are going well for Decius Caecilius Metellus. He is Praetor Peregrinus, which means he has to judge a case or two, but those cases are outside of the city. His cases will be those dealing with foreigners, and all of Italy is his province. His first stop is Campania, "Italy’s most popular resort district". Decius and his wife, Julia, are happy for a change of scenery. But the good times end when, in a town near Vesuvius, a priest’s daughter is murdered. Decius must find her killer and keep the mob off a young boy who everyone blames but he believes to be innocent.

This eagerly awaited fifth book in John Maddox Roberts's Edgar-nominated historical mystery series once again takes the reader back to the Rome of Julius Caesar and the Roman Senator Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger. Decius has won himself a reputation as both an investigator and, most unfortunately, a bit of a playboy. Having been banished by his family for sometimes embarrassing activities to a rather leisurely lifestyle on Rhodes, he is puzzled to be suddenly and unexpectedly summoned home to assist in an investigation.

It was a summer of glorious triumph for the mighty Roman Republic. Her invincible legions had brought all foreign enemies to their knees. But in Rome there was no peace. The streets were flooded with the blood of murdered citizens, and there were rumors of more atrocities to come. Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger was convinced a conspiracy existed to overthrow the government, a sinister cabal that could only be destroyed from within.

Decius Caecilius Metellus is moving up in the world. He's won some money and glory fighting pirates in the Mediterranean and expects a speedy election to the office of praetor. That all changes when a man he's never seen before publicly accuses him of corruption. Decius and his powerful family of Rome's leading politicians scramble to prepare a defense. However, the day of the trial they are greeted with a strange surprise on the steps of the courthouse: the corpse of the man who made the accusation. Now Decius is up against a much more serious charge of murder.

Decius Caecilius Metellus, this year's magistrate for cases involving foreigners, is living the good life in southern Italy, happy to be away from Rome, a city suffering war jitters over Caesar's impending actions. He thinks he is merely visiting one of the local sights when he takes a party to visit the Oracle of the Dead, a pre-Roman cult site located at the end of a tunnel dug beneath a temple of Apollo. He quickly learns that there is a bitter rivalry between the priests of Apollo and those of Hecate, who guard the oracle.

Caius Julius Caesar, now Dictator of Rome, has decided to revise the Roman calendar, which has become out of sync with the seasons. As if this weren’t already an unpopular move, Caesar has brought in astronomers and astrologers from abroad, including Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, and Persians. Decius is appointed to oversee this project, which he knows rankles the Roman public: "To be told by a pack of Chaldeans and Egyptians how to conduct their duties towards the gods was intolerable."

When a sacret woman's rite in the ancient city of Rome is infiltrated by a corrupt patrician dressed in female garb, it falls to Senator Decuis Caecilius Metellus the Younger, whose investigative skills have proven indispensable in the past, to unmask the perpetrators. When four brutal slayings follow, Decius enlists the help a notorious and dangerous criminal.

Julius Caesar, as we know, arrived in Gaul (now France) and announced "I Came, I Saw, I Conquered." But when Decius Metellus arrives from Rome, not seeking military glory but rather avoiding an enemy currently in power, he finds that although the general came and saw, so far, at least, he has far from conquered. The campaign seems at a standstill. Decius' arrival disappoints the great Caesar as well. He has been waiting for promised reinforcements from Rome, an influx of soldiers to restart his invasion. Instead he is presented with one young man ridiculously decked out in military parade finery and short on military skills.

When the Lord of Tarsis finds himself with a politically volatile murder on his hands, he turns to the three most expendable inhabitants of the city of a solution. A mercenary, a poet-assassin, and a thief might not be everyone's first choice for detectives. But they find they're quite good at bringing murderers to justice.

Rom, im Jahre 54 vor Christus: Die Moral ist an einem Tiefpunkt angelangt, der Mob regiert die Straßen und die Ordnungskräfte sind machtlos. Ausgerechnet in diesen Zeiten wird Decius Caecilius Metellus in das undankbare Amt des Ädilen gewählt. Als solcher hat er nicht nur die Aufsicht über die Getreideversorgung, Märkte, öffentliche Straßen und Gebäude, er ist auch für die Organisation der öffentlichen Spiele zuständig. Dabei kommt Decius zwei mächtigen Patriziern in die Quere, welche die Errichtung des Amphitheaters betreiben.

Decius Caecilius Metellus kehrt nach Rom zurück, um seinem verstorbenen Verwandten Celer die letzte Ehre zu erweisen. Als das Gerücht aufkommt, Celer sei von seiner Frau Clodia vergiftet worden, forscht Decius nach und findet sich schnell in der geheimnisvollen Welt der Hexen und Wahrsagerinnen wieder. In dieser dunklen Welt steht sein Leben bald auf dem Spiel...

In der mächtigen Römischen Republik herrscht Friede, nur in den Straßen Roms fließt das Blut. Als ein Bankier und ein Bauunternehmer ermordet aufgefunden werden, erkennt Decius Caecilius Metellus, der Kommandeur der hauptstädtischen Polizei, die bedrohlichen Zeichen einer Verschwörung, die ihre Wurzeln im Zentrum der Macht hat. Doch lässt er sich von keiner Drohung einschüchtern, sondern begibt sich in die Höhle des Löwen - und damit in höchste Gefahr...

Wahlkampf in Rom: Decius Caecilius Metellus bewirbt sich um das Amt des Praetors...

Das alte Alexandria - der faszinierende Schauplatz für den neuen Fall des unerschrockenen römischen Detektivs. Dankbar nimmt Decius Caecilius Metellus die Gelegenheit wahr, nach Alexandria zu reisen. Doch kaum dort angekommen, steckt er auch schon bis zum Hals in den Ermittlungen um den höchst merkwürdigen Tod eines jähzornigen Philosophen. Decius erkennt bald, dass hinter diesem heimtückischen Mord eine Verschwörung steckt, die das ganze römische Imperium bedroht ...

Decius Caecilius Metellus hat eine neue Aufgabe: Er ist er für alle Gerichtsfälle zuständig, in die Nicht-Römer verwickelt sind...