Catilina’s Riddle

A Novel of Ancient Rome

De: Steven Saylor

Narrado por: Scott Harrison

The year is 63 BC, and Gordianus the Finder unexpectedly achieves the dream of every Roman: owning a farm in the Etruscan countryside. Vowing to leave behind the corruption of Rome, he abandons the city, taking his family with him. This bucolic life, however, is disrupted by the machinations and murderous plots of two politicians.

When Gordianus’ longtime patron Cicero attains his lifelong dream of a coveted consulship, he urgently requests a favor of Gordianus: his help in keeping watch on a radical populist senator, Catilina - Cicero’s political rival and a candidate to replace him in the annual elections. Against his will, Gordianus finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a maelstrom of deceit and intrigue, uncertain of the dangers and even more uncertain of where his true allegiance lies. When his six-year-old daughter Diana finds a headless corpse in their stable, Gordianus is confronted with the deadliest mystery of his career.

Shrewdly depicting deadly political maneuverings, this addictive mystery also displays the author’s firm grasp of history and human character.

Steven Saylor is a freelance writer, editor, and the author of novels set in ancient Rome. He studied history at the University of Texas at Austin. His writing has appeared in the Threepenny Review, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He lives in Berkeley, California, and Austin, Texas.

©1993 Steven Saylor (P)1996 Blackstone

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Engrossing…Ironic and satisfying.” ( San Francisco Chronicle)

“Saylor rivals Robert Graves in his knack for making the classical world come alive.” ( Oregonian)

“Saylor has written another gripping and entertaining historical whodunit…Shrewdly depicting deadly political maneuverings, this addictive mystery also displays the author’s firm grasp of history and human character.” ( Publishers Weekly)

Not one of Saylor's best

Narration is awful! The narrator is very wrong for this genre. The story line is also weak. The first third is a rehash of Gordianus' past exploits through the device of conversations and remembrances.
I mostly listen while I'm painting, so I listened to the whole book. It gets a little more interesting toward the end, if you chose to slog that far.

A lot of history with a mystery on the side

This book seems to me like like an excuse by Saylor to write his take on the Catilina conspiracy, with an appended mystery as the fig leaf to call this a detective story. Be that as it may, Steven Saylor is an excellent and engaging story teller. Yes, there were large chunks of this book n which Gordianus listens to Cicero’s speech or Catilina’s speech or hearing so-and-so’s account of such-and-such historical event connected with Catilina’s alleged conspiracy. And I do admit that this did drag a bit at times. But only a bit as Saylor is such an engaging storyteller. The book’s mystery concerns dead bodies found at Gordianus’ recently inherited farm, and how this puzzle interacts - or doesn’t - with Gordianus’ visits from Catilina. Also at play is the conflict between Gordianus and his son Meto, who has just become legally an adult Roman male. The book is one of Saylor’s longest, but I found it an enjoyable read. Saylor is definitely one of the best authors of Roman historical fiction.

I need to say a word about narrator Scott Harrison. I found his voice to take a lot of getting used to. I don’t know quite how to describe his reading, but his reading sound forced and abrupt. I also heard at least three instances where he mixed up the words he was reading. It caused me to re-wind, listen again, and then realize he spoke the wrong word. So, for example, he would read “Cicero punched Caesar in the jaw, leading Cicero to hit Cicero back” when it should have been “....leading Caesar to hit Cicero back.” I have listened to hundreds of audiobooks but never experienced this issue before.

don't bother

I have read a number of these books and listened to the audiotape as well. this performance inspired wishes to throttle the one reciting. Simply obnoxious . Likewise the text, as far as I could stand it, i.e. the hay blight, was boring enough to make me wish to stop my walk and fall asleep. I am very disappointed.

Caustic voice of narrator

Would you try another book from Steven Saylor and/or Scott Harrison?

I have read or listened to almost all of Steven Saylor's books with great relish. The author has an excellent grasp of Roman culture and his character development of Gordianus the investigator has been interesting to watch evolve. However the voice of Mr Scott Harrison sounds more like someone who should be reading contemporary dectective novels set in Miami or New York rather than ancient Rome. After less than 2 hours I simply turned the audio recording off. I will read the books from the public library rather than buy any historical novel narrated by Mr. Harrison.

What other book might you compare Catilina’s Riddle to and why?

Murder on the Appian Way. Features Gordianus the investigator.

What didn’t you like about Scott Harrison’s performance?

I'm sure this narrator is very effective when reading contemporary detective or spy novels. His vowels are very clipped and sharp. His reading pace seldom varies and one's gets the feeling he is racing to be done with the book. Consequently the emphasis on specific scenes is mismanaged

What character would you cut from Catilina’s Riddle?

.

Any additional comments?

Find a different narrator please.

Stilted

I wish Audible would allow me to list readers I don't care for. Not even publicly list them, just keep a record so I know not to get a book with a crummy reader. This is one such reader. His stilted delivery and inappropriate pauses clearly don't do any favors to the story. The story needs help too, our hero is a numbskull and I swear he wasn't this dumb in previous books. Overall not the best listening for me.