The Silver Pigs

"This is a really fun and lively historical mystery novel. The detective character is similar in some ways to a 20th-century century wise-cracking, streetwise noir-style private eye, but the setting is 1st century Rome. Unlike his 20th-century counterparts, detective Marcus Didius Falco has an extended family that he can’t ignore, and those relationships bring a humorous dimension to the story. When Falco travels to Britannia to investigate the link between the murder of his client and a political plot, he meets Helena Justina. They promptly make bad impressions on each other, and Falco knows she really doesn’t like him when she sets him up as a slave to do some sleuthing in a silver mine — a very dangerous undercover role to play. In any case, as a love interest Helena Justina is clearly way out of his league, isn’t she? The historical detail is very well researched and the author has not fallen into the trap of trying to give characters contemporary sensibilities. If you want to spend more time with these rather likeable characters, here is some good news: there are twenty books in the Marcus Didius Falco series."