A Prisoner of Privilege

Set in Roman-ruled Britain in 194 C.E., Rowe’s 18th series whodunit (after 2018’s The Price of Freedom) surpasses her own high standard. Libertus, a pavement-maker turned magistrate in Glevum (modern day Gloucester), visits the home of Josephus Loftus, the local moneylender, who wants to talk with Libertus. But when Josephus’s servant looks in on her master, she finds him dead, and Libertus quickly discovers evidence that Josephus was smothered with a pillow. His investigation comes as tensions remain high in Rome over who will be recognized as emperor; civil war broke out the previous year after the Praetorian Guard assassinated Emperor Pertinax. The expected arrival in Glevum of a retired member of the guard leads Libertus’s patron, Marcus Aurelius Septimus, to fear that his loyalty is being questioned. Three more killings—a strangling, a beheading, and a stabbing—raise the stakes. Rowe’s series remains a welcome complement to Ruth Downie’s Medicus mysteries, which provide a different perspective on Roman Britain. (Sept.)