SPQR VI: Nobody Loves a Centurion

Like so many young men in later generations, Roman playboy/detective Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger is faced with the necessity of serving in his country's armed forces. Since a dangerous enemy has become powerful in the politics of Rome, Decius is just as well out of the city for a while. He sets out to join Caesar in Gaul (where the general has come and seen, but has as yet not been able to conquer. The occupying Roman army is at a standstill. When Decius shows up in full parade regalia (much to the amusement of the more informally uniformed veterans) and accompanied only by his young personal slave. Caesar sets him the task of discovering who murdered one of his centurions, a cruel and unfair officer feared and hated by every man of the one hundred soldiers under him. A further prod to Decius is that the main suspect is a youth whose father is a close friend of the Metellus family. With Caesar's decree that another killer be found in a matter of hours or the young man dies, Decius has his work cut out for him. John Maddox Roberts's series set in the first century A.D. vividly brings to readers a strong sense of the everyday life of the ancient Romans in the context of our own.

John Maddox Roberts is the author of several works of science fiction and some modern mysteries. There are eight books already published in hardcover in the series featuring the Roman Decius Metellus, and they are being reissued in this paperback format. The author and his wife have recently moved from Virginia to a home in New Mexico.

"Highly entertaining. The character are convincing, the pacing rolls along at double-time, and the historical details-from military minutia to the particulars of daily life in Casesar's era-cannot fail to appeal."
--Tampa Tribune and Times on the hardcover edition of SPQR VI: Nobody Loves a Centurion