Dream Boat

Rating:
Summary: Claudia sweeps through
Review: Marilyn Todd's somewhat irreverant heroine, Claudia Seferius, is at her acid-tongued, fast-fighting best in this latest installment. Once more Claudia trips out of Rome after landing her infatuated slave Gaul Junius in a spot of trouble, hot-footing (vagrant Flea in tow) after her troublesome step-daughter Flavia who has joined a mystery Egyptian cult in an effort to garner some attention for herself. Meanwhile, the love of Claudia's life - though she'll never admit it - Orbilio (the dancing around each other relationship between herself and Orbilio is a delightful subplot throughout the series) is under house arrest after discovering a literal skeleton walled up in his atrium during some renovations. The chase after Flavia and the Egyptian Theme park some 63 miles outside Rome provides its usual strange cast of assorted murders and villains and Claudia charms her way through the dangerous lot with some style and aplomb to save the day.
If you read other Roman murder mysteries then Todd's heroine is a delightful step aside from the painstaking recreations of ancient Rome that seem to be an unwritten requirement. Indeed, Claudia Seferius is almost a twenty-first century party girl who has turned up two thousand years too early. There is a veneer applied throughout to the Roman lifestyle, but not too much attention is paid to fact and it doesn't detract in the slightest. References to Orbilio as a 'policeman' neatly encapsulate the style that permeates the series.

Todd's Roman mysteries are a refreshing breeze through the genre and I must confess that I eagerly await each book. Dark Horse should prove as equally enthralling.