Food for the Fishes

David Wishart produces great Roman mysteries from a part of Europe Rome never reached - just north of Hadrian's Wall. Food for the Fishes is one of the most enjoyable of Wishart's series about Marcus Corvinus, a young patrician, set during the reign of Tiberius. The interplay among Corvinus and the recurring supporting cast is one of the strengths of Wishart's series. Perilla (his wife), Vispania (his mother) and Priscus (his step-father) are all well developed characters and each contributes to this book, which is set in Vispania's seaside villa in Baiae, a favorite Roman resort for the wealthy. The mystery itself is delightfully plotted and the book is well written. I look forward to each installment in the series, as I do to those of Steven Saylor, Lindsey Davis and Rosemary Rowe.

When it comes to writing detective novels taking place in Ancient Rome, David Wishart is right up there with the best of them, Lindsey Davis and Steven Saylor to name but two. The lead character Marcus Corvinus makes an amusing and likeable sleuth and with the help of his very able wife Perilla, not much gets past the pair of them when it comes to solving crimes in the ancient city. When Licinius Murena the owner of a fish farm is found dead in one of his own eel tanks there are not many tears shed. Certainly not by Trebbio who has recently been booted out of his house by the landowner. Nor by the stunning young widow, half Murena's age. His daughter is not losing any sleep over the loss of her daddy either. The man's farm manager does not seem too distressed either. Does anyone like the murder victim. It would seem that Corvinus has a list of suspects as long as his arm. Could this be one that even Marcus cannot solve . . .