Posts by Vicki J Kondelik

The House of the Vestals is a collection of nine short mystery stories featuring Steven Saylor's ancient Roman detective, Gordianus the Finder. The stories are meant to fill a gap between the first two books of the series, and they introduce some of the regular characters. They illustrate many fascinating aspects of Roman society, including the theater, the belief in ghosts, and holidays.

In Habitual Offenders, historian Craig A. Monson tells the true story of the murder of two former prostitutes turned nuns who fled from their convent in 17th century Italy. This is a compelling historical whodunit. Although it is non-fiction, it reads like a novel, with dialogue taken from the actual transcript of the trial of the prime suspects: the nuns' supposed lovers and the right-hand man of a powerful cardinal. Eventually, the web of intrigue stretches as far as Cardinal Mazarin and the court of Louis XIV.

SPQR is a history of ancient Rome, from 753 BCE, the supposed date of its founding, to 212 CE, when the emperor Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. Historian Mary Beard combines the political history of Rome, with famous names such as Julius Caesar and Augustus, with the lives of ordinary people, including women and slaves. She writes in a compelling style that makes the history of ancient Rome come alive.

A Great Reckoning is the latest entry in Louise Penny's popular series, set in the tiny Québec village of Three Pines, featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, who comes out of retirement to lead the Sûreté Academy. When the brutal former head of the Academy is found murdered in his rooms, Gamache becomes a suspect. Meanwhile, Gamache's wife Reine-Marie and her friends find an old map of Three Pines buried in a wall, and Gamache enlists the help of four young cadets to help solve the mystery of why the village has been erased from all official maps of Québec.

Jade Dragon Mountain is a beautifully-written mystery set in 18th century China. Exiled imperial librarian Li Du investigates the murder of a Jesuit astronomer in a city on the border between China and Tibet.

This unusual historical novel tells the story of the 17th century painter Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the first women to have a successful career as an artist. The author intersperses Artemisia's story with her own experiences in Florence during World War II, and creates a dialogue between herself and Artemisia.

In this mystery set in ancient Rome, private informer Flavia Albia is called to the scene when a dead body is found in a chest which is being put up for auction. At the same time, she helps the man she loves, Manlius Faustus, with his friend's political campaign. When a second body turns up in the chest, she realizes there might be a connection between the murders and the election.

In the third of Steven Saylor's series of novels set in the ancient world, Roman detective Gordianus the Finder receives a message saying his former tutor, now living in Ephesus, is in great danger. He travels to Ephesus and discovers a plot by King Mithridates to kill all the Romans in the kingdom. Will Gordianus prevent the massacre from taking place?

Murder in Passy is part of a long-running mystery series set in Paris in the 1990s, featuring private detective Aimée Leduc. When Aimée's mentor becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his Basque girlfriend, her investigation leads her into the world of Basque terrorists and a kidnapped Spanish princess.

Here Be Dragons is an epic historical novel set in thirteenth-century England and Wales. Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, Prince of North Wales, is married off in a political alliance to Joanna, illegitimate daughter of King John of England. Against all expectations, and in spite of an almost twenty-year difference in their ages, they fall in love. But when Joanna's father decides he wants to make Wales part of his kingdom, Joanna's loyalties are torn between the two men she loves most, her father and her husband. Penman paints a complex picture of both societies, the English (or, rather, the Norman-French) and the Welsh, and she draws you so deeply into her world that you don't want to leave.