I was going to nominate
Thus Was Adonis Murdered, by Sarah Caudwell, whose far-too-brief four book series is my absolute favorite mystery series of all time. However,
Adonis, which is the first in the series, doesn't seem to be available in e-book in the US, just in the UK. And sadly my second favorite series, the Mamur Zapt series, by Michael Pearce, is not available in ebook (other than the two or three most recent titles) anywhere. And the first in Michael Pearce's excellent "other" series, A
Dead Man in Trieste, doesn't seem to be available in the UK. So finally I worked my way to David Wishart's historical series featuring the wise-cracking Marcus Corvinus, set in first century Rome, which is another huge favorite series of mine.
So....
I nominate
Ovid, which is the first in this series. It's available both at Amazon US ($4.99 or free with KU) and Amazon UK (£4.99), and also at Kobo UK (also £4.99). It doesn't seem to be available at Kobo US, but hopefully Amazon US will do.
Wishart sort of writes in two styles for this series - some of them are "political" and hit heavy on the background of the Julio Claudian dynasty, and some of them are more light-hearted, more normal mysteries, but still set in a nice historical background. I myself like both styles, but slightly prefer the more political ones.
Ovid, the first in the series, is one of the political ones. For @HomeInMyShoes at the beginning of this thread, who wanted some mysteries from strange countries, this should fill the bill.
The one slight oddity of this series, which does annoy some folks, although not me, is that Wishart has the characters speak in modern style - not in a style more resembling the written records of this period. With that said, though, his historical background is sharp, as you might expect from someone who studied Classics at Edinburgh University.
Anyway, this is my first time nominating something - hopefully that's enough for a nomination.
Oh, and it's a 3.79 at Goodreads, and here's a blurb:
Quote:
When young aristocratic layabout Marcus Corvinus is approached by the stepdaughter of the exiled and now dead Roman poet Ovid and asked to clear the return of the ashes for burial, he cheerfully agrees; there should, he thinks, be no problem. Only when he makes the application to the imperial authorities it’s turned down flat. So what, Corvinus asks himself, did Ovid do that was so bad that they won’t even allow his bones back into Italy?
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