Steven Saylor"s series of thrillers about Gordianus the Finder play cleverly with what we think we know about the last days of the Roman Republic. Gordianus does the legwork for prosecutors and defenders in a system of trials which have become increasingly politicised; even his former patron Cicero has become less interested in justice than in winning and Gordianus is, almost notoriously, the last honest man in Rome. Most of his cases deal with murder trials in which Cicero appeared--part of the fun of reading Saylor is his attentive reading of the great advocate"s brilliantly partisan rhetoric. And for those less interested in such intellectual games, the books are attractively atmospheric, showing a Rome still small enough for everyone to know each other"s business. Here Gordianus finds himself investigating the murder of a former mentor, Dio, a philosopher and leader of an embassy from Egypt; the triumvirs, Pompey, Caesar and Crassus, are contemplating annexing Egypt and its exiled king is only too prepared to act as their catspaw. And Gordianus finds himself the ally of Clodius and Clodia, the two most notoriously dissolute siblings ...There is nothing so deceptive as what we think we know and Gordianus is as often tricked here as is the reader. --Roz Kaveney