A Gladiator Dies Only Once: The Further Investigations of Gordianus the Finder

This book is great reading for people who like ancient history. The author is not only great at solving mysteries but describes the life of the way the ancient Romans lived.

Steven Saylor outdid himself with this collection of short stories. My favorite is "Gladiators" which is stunning and excellently written with a great twist at the end. All these tales have endings that are surprising. I am so glad with all of Mr. Saylor's books, his writing is informative and very well researched. Every book of this genre make for excellent and enjoyable reading.

Saylor has pleased me again with a fairly good portrayal of the Roman world and the limits of investigations into mysteries and crimes. I was slightly disappointed to not see Tiro mentioned more often given the number of guest appearances Cicero made -- the letters of Cicero to his secretary slave and freedman suggest they were rarely apart save when the orator and politican was in political disfavor or danger and none of these stories take place then. But these are short stories and need to be more focused on the immediate mystery at hand unlike a novel which can dive into the personal relationships and culture in greater degree.

I'm a big fan of the Gordianus the Finder novels. I've gone out of my way to read every one of them in the series. However, these short stories are even _better_ than the novels. Maybe it's because Saylor doesn't have to construct a complex plot, or set a stage with myriad characters. He's able to focus on the storytelling, with enough historical detail to give the stories a sense of versimilitude. As a result, the tales are lighter... and you don't have to feel as though your mind has to be sharp to enjoy the stories. As with any such collection, some of the short stories work better than do others, but none of them are clinkers. Despite my effusive praise, I'd recommend that a newcomer to Gordianus read one of the novels first. Doing so will give a bit more backbone to the world Saylor writes about. But overall: Lovely, entertaining stories. Grab it.

Saylor's second release of Gordianus short stories are as delightful as those in the `House of Vestals'. In chronological order he opens with The Consul's wife, a quick story of newspaper cryptic messages and a paranoid consul with a beautiful and independent young wife who's not adverse to backing a quick sesterce at the races. Swiftly narrated and demonstrative of Gordianus' quick eye and intelligent lateral thinking our super sleuth solves this case carelessly in a matter of hours and takes his fee. The second `If a Cyclops Could Vanish in the Blink of an Eye' is the shortest of the nine and is Bethseda's only real mention during this feline crime. `The White Fawn' has Gordianus scampering west to Spain to meet up with the renegade general Sertorius in order to chase down Mamercus Claudius, a hot-headed youth who has joined up with him against his grandfather's wishes. Gordianus gets dragged into a search for a white fawn that is acting as Sertorius' soothsayer. This story has a darker ending with our first murder of an innocent. `Something Fishy in Pompeii' appeals to our palatable readers with its focus on industrial espionage over a missing batch of finest garum whilst `Archimedes Tomb' neatly combines the pomposity of Cicero in Syracuse with the infamous `Eureka' and the bath. Here, Gordianus is called upon to solve another murder after a Trimalchio-esque dinner between the merchant men Agathinus and Dorotheus with their pet poet, Margero. Here we find a reference to Tiro and Eco is also along for the ride. `Death by Eros' deals with unrequited love in a gymnasium as the overly beautiful Cleon is found at the bottom of the pool and his sister Cleio and tutor Mulciber are dragged in. In what I feel is the best story of the lot, `A Gladiator Dies Only Once' Gordianus sits through a munera with Cicero, witnessing the brutality of gladiatorial combat, and is then by recruited by the Nubian, Zuleika, who is searching for her brother Zanzibar whose death isn't quite what it seems. In `Poppy and the poisoned cake' we find Lucius Gellius Poplicola, a somewhat stuffy censor, allowing Gordianus to rapidly solve the mystery of his cyanide cake with his wife Palla, and son Lucius but finds himself a pawn in a greater political game which echoes many of the fuller novels. We conclude with a visit to the oppulent table of Lucullus and his cherries for a mystery that skips murder entirely and offers Syalor's own conclusion to Lucullus' fading from history. This is a delightful set of small additions to the Sub Rosa series and serve well to fill in the gaps of the thirty odd years that we have followed our Finder. I sincerely hope more Gordianus come from the pen of Saylor but this may mean he has to move away from creating mysteries based on histroical events as those events are fast running out, though having Gordianus involved in the most famous murder of all in 44B.C must surely lure Saylor's pen. If you're an ancient history murder mystery fan then

I am definitely a fan of Steven Saylor's "Gordianus the Finder" tales, set in the First Century BCE, during the last decades of the Roman Republic. The present volume is a collection of short stories set fairly early in Goridanus's career, some decades before the more recent novels in the series. But like the novels, these short stories are filled with strong, memorable characters and genuine historial incident. I rate Saylor as quite probably the best "historical mystery" working today; his books always provide new insights into Ancient Roman life and society. The stories in this volume wwuld be a good introduction to the more complex and subtle novels in Saylor's "Roma Sub Rosa" series, enjoyable in themselves but also illuminating the characters inhabiting the novels.

These nine tales all written in the past decade take place in Ancient Rome in the middle of the first century BC and star Gordianus the finder whose clients provides him with plenty of work (payment is a different story). The cases vary and those "hiring" Gordianus are as wild a group as any detective (make that a finder) might imagine working for. The stories are fun mostly because they provide a deep look at Ancient Rome and the eccentricity of the support characters. Gordianus is his usual witty self, matching and trumping opponents with his intelligence and humor especially the asides. Though not quite as strong as the novels (see THE JUDGMENT OF CAESAR), readers will find each contribution is well written and fun to read. Harriet Klausner