David Wishart"s Germanicus and A Vote For Murder
There is no particular logic to reviewing David Wishart's Germanicus and A Vote For Murder together except that having finished both of them I feel replete; whereas after I had finished Germanicus all seemed unsettled. That's because at the end of Germanicus, Marcus Corvinus, the sleuth in David Wishart's Roman mystery series, is given a responsibility to carry down into the future.
In Germanicus, as in Ovid, it is Corvinus' job to unravel an imperial mystery.
In Germanicus, the mystery is about the death of Germanicus, the very popular military commander, adopted son of Tiberius, and heir apparent. Corvinus is commissioned (again) by the emperor's decrepit, evil mother Livia, to determine whether her son, the emperor Tiberius, had a hand in it and whether or not Piso and Plancina were directly involved. Livia swears she was not involved, but exculpating her is also part of the package. This takes Corvinus and his new wife, Perilla, on a trip to Syria, ostensibly for their honeymoon, but between the fact that Perilla's ex is there, the pervasive coverup, and spreading fear of the burgeoning power of Tiberius' right-hand man Sejanus, Corvinus finds his job dangerous and difficult. With the help of his wife, Corvinus solves the mystery, and even impresses the usually ungrateful Livia who says the purpose of the exercise was for someone to know the truth when she dies.
That was the unsatisfactory conclusion that made me want to read the next volume.
Did Livia die before she could send Corvinus on another treacherous adventure? Was the one cup of wine she gave him the only compensation Corvinus ever received for his imperial work? Unfortunately, I was not too careful in my selection and seem to have missed at least one intervening Roman mystery.
Germanicus is based on an actual historical event, which means it is filled with figures who need to be tied together for the sake of history, in addition to plot development. In the next Wishart that I read, A Vote For Murder, there is no such exigency. The characters are developed solely to fit the plot, which makes them somewhat easier to keep track of. The plot begins with a very modern feeling political campaign replete with graffiti artists misspelling their platforms on newly whitewashed walls. Corvinus is taking a vacation from Rome, with his wife Perilla, at the home of her very proper aunt, which is where Corvinus and Perilla stowed their adopted daughter. (The adopted daughter must have come up in one of the intervening series and is referred to at times as a step-daughter, which may be a British usage, since in the U.S. she would be called "step" only if she had belonged to Perilla or Corvinus through an earlier marriage.) The girl loves animals, and so rescues / buys a worthless, sick sheep so she can nurse it to health. This makes wine conoisseur Corvinus worry a bit because the sheep has been known to raid expensive wine cellars.
That all forms the subplot, while the plot deals with the murder of one of the candidates, and the hatred the local Latins have for the Romans. This hatred threatens an upcoming local festival at which the senior consul of Rome must preside, surrounded by axe-wielding Latins.
As in all of David Wishart's books, the reader gets a close look at the local wines, and at social customs from an aristocrat who has chosen to flout convention. This gives him somewhat more clout than the equally down-to-earth, but lower class Marcus Didius Falco of the Lindsey Davis series. The period Wishart covers is a few decades earlier, since it is the period of Tiberius, whereas Falco lives under the Flavians. For those who don't think Wishart deserves comparison with Lindsey Davis, I'd like to make a suggestion: read another Wishart or two. He grows on you. Besides, Lindsey Davis comes out with only one a year. Think of Wishart as a supplement.
In Germanicus, as in Ovid, it is Corvinus' job to unravel an imperial mystery.
In Germanicus, the mystery is about the death of Germanicus, the very popular military commander, adopted son of Tiberius, and heir apparent. Corvinus is commissioned (again) by the emperor's decrepit, evil mother Livia, to determine whether her son, the emperor Tiberius, had a hand in it and whether or not Piso and Plancina were directly involved. Livia swears she was not involved, but exculpating her is also part of the package. This takes Corvinus and his new wife, Perilla, on a trip to Syria, ostensibly for their honeymoon, but between the fact that Perilla's ex is there, the pervasive coverup, and spreading fear of the burgeoning power of Tiberius' right-hand man Sejanus, Corvinus finds his job dangerous and difficult. With the help of his wife, Corvinus solves the mystery, and even impresses the usually ungrateful Livia who says the purpose of the exercise was for someone to know the truth when she dies.
That was the unsatisfactory conclusion that made me want to read the next volume.
Did Livia die before she could send Corvinus on another treacherous adventure? Was the one cup of wine she gave him the only compensation Corvinus ever received for his imperial work? Unfortunately, I was not too careful in my selection and seem to have missed at least one intervening Roman mystery.
Germanicus is based on an actual historical event, which means it is filled with figures who need to be tied together for the sake of history, in addition to plot development. In the next Wishart that I read, A Vote For Murder, there is no such exigency. The characters are developed solely to fit the plot, which makes them somewhat easier to keep track of. The plot begins with a very modern feeling political campaign replete with graffiti artists misspelling their platforms on newly whitewashed walls. Corvinus is taking a vacation from Rome, with his wife Perilla, at the home of her very proper aunt, which is where Corvinus and Perilla stowed their adopted daughter. (The adopted daughter must have come up in one of the intervening series and is referred to at times as a step-daughter, which may be a British usage, since in the U.S. she would be called "step" only if she had belonged to Perilla or Corvinus through an earlier marriage.) The girl loves animals, and so rescues / buys a worthless, sick sheep so she can nurse it to health. This makes wine conoisseur Corvinus worry a bit because the sheep has been known to raid expensive wine cellars.
That all forms the subplot, while the plot deals with the murder of one of the candidates, and the hatred the local Latins have for the Romans. This hatred threatens an upcoming local festival at which the senior consul of Rome must preside, surrounded by axe-wielding Latins.
As in all of David Wishart's books, the reader gets a close look at the local wines, and at social customs from an aristocrat who has chosen to flout convention. This gives him somewhat more clout than the equally down-to-earth, but lower class Marcus Didius Falco of the Lindsey Davis series. The period Wishart covers is a few decades earlier, since it is the period of Tiberius, whereas Falco lives under the Flavians. For those who don't think Wishart deserves comparison with Lindsey Davis, I'd like to make a suggestion: read another Wishart or two. He grows on you. Besides, Lindsey Davis comes out with only one a year. Think of Wishart as a supplement.
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