A setup Agatha Christie fans would appreciate forms the framework for Rowe’s fine 10th mystery set in second-century Roman-occupied Britain (after 2007’s A Coin for the Ferryman
). Series sleuth Libertus, a mosaic maker by trade, agrees to stand in at a wedding for his patron, Marcus Septimus, who has to travel to Rome, in the town of Glevum (modern Gloucester). When someone poisons Honorius Didius Fustis, a town councilor and the bride’s father, on the wedding day, the prospective bridegroom, Gracchus, who’s still eager to cash in on the dowry, hires Libertus to prove that the bride-to-be, Pompeia, isn’t responsible for parricide, despite her apparent confession. With his standing with the Roman authorities uncertain, the investigator doggedly pursues suspects both inside and outside the dead man’s family. Rowe does her usual excellent job of integrating the details of everyday life into the plot. (Feb.)
