Roman Mysteries
I've always enjoyed mysteries, since I discovered Perry Mason when I was in junior high. I've also been a life-long devotee of Roman history. Some years ago I realized there were people who were writing mysteries set in ancient Greece and Rome, and I decided I'd like to do that. Instead of creating a fictional character as my sleuth, I settled on Pliny the Younger, an historical figure. I have been enjoying writing about him since the beginning of this century. You may notice the different styles of the covers. They've been designed by the several different publishers who've handled the books. In addition to having titles that are in alphabetical order, they have numbers in the subtitles: A Second Case from the Notebooks of Pliny the Younger, for example. The first one is just "A Case etc." because when I wrote it, I didn't know there would be a series. I have tried to make sure that readers can start anywhere in the series.
The Gods Help Those
The seventh episode in the Pliny series was published in 2018. When a warehouse that he owns on the banks of the Tiber collapses, Pliny learns that several dead bodies have been found inside. One of them is a man wearing an equestrian stripe on his tunic. Pliny has to find out who these people are and what they were doing in his warehouse. His nemesis, Regulus, starts dropping hints that Pliny might somehow be culpable for the deaths or that he will make it appear so.
Reviewer KG Whitehurst said, "At one level, this novel is an entertaining mystery with all the misdirection, intriguing characters, and bracing plot for which a reader could wish. At a deeper level, it is a meditation on the nature of power . . . The novel should leave a careful reader still thinking about the nature of the Roman Empire and its society long after the covers are closed."
". . . an intriguing case set in ancient Rome . . . this historical mystery is fast-paced and hard to put down." Midwest Book Review
Fortune's Fool
Pliny the Younger is intelligent about everything but women, it seems. He agrees to his wife's and mother's wishes to marry off his lover, Aurora, to another slave, but neglects to tell her until the day of the wedding. To add to his problems, when building a wing onto his villa on beautiful Lake Como, workmen discover a skeleton. Pliny launches an investigation of the crime but soon receives anonymous warnings and threats to desist. Then his wife, Livia, is kidnapped.
The Eyes of Aurora
Pliny's servant Aurora, who is also the forbidden love of his life, has played Good Samaritan to a woman who claims to be searching for her missing husband. Wanting to help the woman, Pliny steps in, assisted by Tacitus. But the situation turns into a web of deception and intrigue when they discover evidence of a horrific murder while searching for the missing man. After Aurora is injured, Pliny's involvement becomes personal. He's even desperate enough to ask Regulus, his longtime enemy, for help when the case brings him to the unwelcome attention of the emperor Domitian.
Death in the Ashes
A few years after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, where he lost his adoptive father, Pliny the Younger is asked by his friend Aurelia to help her husband Calpurnius, who has been accused of murder in Naples. Pliny has solved previous crimes, but never before has so much time and distance elapsed before his arrival on the murder scene . . . nor has he carried so much emotional baggage. Will he and Tacitus be able to find evidence? How will they deal with an accused man who refuses to defend himself? Pliny must swallow his ghastly memories and face a deadly challenge in the ruins of a buried villa. Kelli Stanley, author of the Roman Noir series, called the book a "scintillating mystery . . . suspenseful and riveting."
The Corpus Conundrum
While out hunting, Pliny finds a man's body. He appears lifeless, but Pliny cannot find a cause of death. He locks the body in a stable, but in the morning it's gone. Strangers appear at Pliny's door, claiming to be the man's children. One sings siren songs and claims his "father" is immortal. Another may be an empusa, a shape-shifting, blood-drinking monster. Bodies pile up: a fifteen-year-old murder, a faceless man floating in the bay, and the "lifeless immortal," this time with his throat cut. Was he killed for his blood? Pliny and Tacitus must discover how the murders are connected to each other and to Pliny's nemesis, Marcus Aquilius Regulus.
The Blood of Caesar
Assigned by Emperor Domitian to search for blood heirs to the Emperor Augustus, Pliny and Tacitus seek solutions to layers of mysteries. Why is a humble workman's death important to the ruler of Rome, and what connects him to Pliny's household? How do Domitian's suspicions relate to Pliny's old friend, the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus? Is Tacitus' father-in-law Agricola a villain, victim or savior? Like a sinister red line slashed through a carefully prepared manuscript, the legacy of Augustus marks the connections. Will the answers save the peace of Rome, or mark its doom? Library Journal called the book "a masterpiece of the historical mystery genre."
All Roads Lead to Murder
First-century Smyrna comes alive as the scene of a horrific murder. Pliny the Younger, Tacitus, and a doctor named Luke, travelers in a caravan bound for Rome, become investigators when no Roman magistrates are available. Suspects abound: gamblers, priestesses of an arcane cult, and Christians. What is the secret of one of the victim's own slaves, a beautiful blond, and the German giant shadowing her?