The novel: Murder on the Appian Way, written by Steven Saylor takes place during Ancient Rome. A very well known man named Clodius is murdered. The city is flooded with riots and people trying to avenge this influential man. The suspected killer is another influential man by the name of Milo. The main character, Gordianus is a famed detective and is asked by both sides to find what really happened. Before he leaves to do that Pompey asks him to do the same (85). This is a very good historical murder mystery.
The beginning of the book is slow and boring. But as the story progresses, and the characters become more real to the reader, the story gets better. The story is probably slow in the beginning since the author has to get the readers up to speed on what’s going on. As soon as the basic plot is set, the story is really good. Another reason the beginning of the story is so dull, is because there is a lot of conversations going on, and not much of anything else.
The plot is well formed and the reader is never left in the dark. One of the nice things about this story is that all the clues are given. So while the main character, Gordianus is trying to solve the mystery, the reader has the opportunity to do the same. Once the story gets going there is rarely a dull moment.
Steven Saylor is good at making his characters seem real. He tells the story in first person, and so the reader gets very attached to the main character. All the characters are well-formed and complex, or round characters. Each character changes throughout the story. The main character in the story is a fifty-year-old man. Steven Saylor shows a very realistic description of him. He isn’t as strong as he once was, but as he got older he became much smarter. Which tends to happen to a lot of people. This causes the reader to think that perhaps brains are better then brawn.
Even though the story is based on Ancient Rome, the story makes sense. The time gap doesn’t seem so large since Steven Saylor does such a good job at explaining things. The fact that this fictional story happens so long ago makes it even more interesting, because the reader has to remember that the technology was much different then.
This book’s ending is very good, but it does leave the reader a bit unsatisfied. The true murderer goes unpunished, and the supposed murderer, Milo gets banished. Even though Milo gets banished for the death of a famous person, he was a bad. Which makes a person feel okay with the injustice they allowed to happen. Even the main character’s ultimate decision about the conflict within his family goes unresolved. Steven Saylor gives a very strong hit as to what will happen, but it isn’t put into print. Leaving the readers to come to their own conclusions.
This is a very good historical murder mystery. Some people who read this story might be very emotional at parts, especially when the reader’s are led to believe that one of the character’s died. However it is unlikely that most people would get that attached to the characters since they aren’t given much time to.
 Screaming_Biscuits · Fri Feb 02, 2007 @ 03:05am · 0 Comments |
