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Title: The Legatus Mystery by Rosemary Rowe ISBN: 0-7862-5953-1 Publisher: Thorndike Pr (Largeprint) Pub. Date: February, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: Libertus flounders
Comment: Rowe's latest Libertus offering - 'The Legatus Mystery'- proves the weakest to date. I'm not sure why but the entire effort is somewhat muddied, probably because Rowe allows Libertus to lose the normally cool-headed thought process and end up supernaturally confused and fleeing for his life from an misguided Glevum mob who believe that he's brought the wrath of the Gods down on them. All of which throws us out of kilter and turns him nearly into an emotional wreck. Very un-Libertus-like.
This fifth installment has our sleuth returning from London with his 'wife' Gwellia, to be ordered to uncover the amazing case of the vanishing corpse from the inner sanctum of the temple as found by its sub-sevir, Meritus. Several others are in the frame, includng the Pontifex, Scribonius, Optimus, a lisping slave named somewhat unkindly by Libertus and Junio as Lithputh (though it does serve its own misleading purpose eventually), Hirsus and Trinculus. However, the plot takes more a case of discovering who the original body was - presumably an unknown missing legate, judging by the recovered ring - rather than concluding there actually was a murder and who the suspects were - and therein lies the key to the entire mystery.
So, we actually get to see Libertus laying a mosaic, tentatively drag the usual adulterous Roman matron in to the script, have some further insights as to Libertus' new and changing relationships with both Gwellia and Junio, profess our usual irritation with Marcus who is becoming excellent at jumping to ridiculous conclusions whilst being prickly about insinuations of his stupidity by his client and stomp around a poorly portrayed temple before ucocvering the true murder and figuring out whodunnit.
What Rowe is extremely good at it sending the reader down a completely blind alley. When the deouement reveals the culprit(s) you instantly see where the obvious clues were, but she has ingeniously hidden them in plain sight - always the mark of a good murder mystery author. However, as I stated at the very first, this is the weakest to date and I confess I put it aside several times to read other novels before finally finishing. I assume it's merely a blip as every Roman sleuth has an off day, and that the next installment will be back to the promise offered in the first four.