The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunnits

Rating:
Summary: SPQR
Review: Being an avid fan of Gordianus the Finder and Marcus Didius Falco, buying this book of short stories concerning mysteries set in the Roman world was a "no-brainer". I assumed that this collection, like all collections of stories, would vary in quality from indifferent to excellent. Thankfully, I was wrong, for all of the stories are top-notch examples of mystery writing at its best, including the one supposedly from 1866 or so, which is a good example of older writing. I'm pleased that Gordianus is in this book, but did miss Falco, although I did make the acquaintance of new friends of mystery whose careeers I will follow in other published works by their authors. If you, like me, enjoy mysteries set during Roman times, and can't get enough of them through novel length works, I highly recommend this wonderful collection. You will not be disappointed!

Rating:
Summary: A bit tired
Review: Being an avid fan of Gordianus the Finder and Marcus Didius Falco, buying this book of short stories concerning mysteries set in the Roman world was a "no-brainer". I assumed that this collection, like all collections of stories, would vary in quality from indifferent to excellent. Thankfully, I was wrong, for all of the stories are top-notch examples of mystery writing at its best, including the one supposedly from 1866 or so, which is a good example of older writing. I'm pleased that Gordianus is in this book, but did miss Falco, although I did make the acquaintance of new friends of mystery whose careeers I will follow in other published works by their authors. If you, like me, enjoy mysteries set during Roman times, and can't get enough of them through novel length works, I highly recommend this wonderful collection. You will not be disappointed!

Rating:
Summary: Some really great stories; some flat stories
Review: I love the mysteries from Steven Saylor and Rosemary Rowe so I thought this would be a great collection. They each have a story in this collection. Both are good, Rowe's better than Saylor's. I was also very impressed with Wallace Nichols older story; it made me want to try and find his other work. Caroline Lawrence's children's story was also interesting but I didn't think it did the period justice. In fact, maybe because I study ancient history (and just taught a college level Roman History course in the spring of 2004) I couldn't get over some of the historical problems with several of the stories in this collection. For example Michael Jecks' piece was full of very odd words that just did not fit in the context of his chosen time period and that made it very difficult for me to read. Other stories just didn't have main characters that grapped me. *shrug* Large collections are generall so-so in quality so I guess I should not have been very surprised.

Rating:
Summary: A bit tired
Review: The stories in this book just don't seem to be of the same caliber as those in previous Mammoth editions...or maybe I'm just getting tired of "ancient" mysteries. One thing I do know, however...this book needed a good editor...and didn't have one...too many misspellings, etc.