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A review by staceylynn42
The River God's Vengeance by John Maddox Roberts
5.0
This is one of my favorites of the series. Decius in his prime as a Senator and as an investigator.
He's an aedile in this book, an expensive & exhausting position for a man to hold in the Roman republic. First he learns just how clogged the sewers are right before the river starts to flood. Then an apartment building collapses killing a couple hundred, including some very unpleasant rich people. So he is dealing with lots of corruption by previous aediles & censors in issuing contracts to clean the sewers and covering up inadequacies in the building trade, then he gets the news that those unpleasant rich people were murdered. All this while planning to throw his (required by the office) funeral games for the entertainment of the masses. Decius is left hunting the murderer, through layers of cover ups and rising water levels in the forum while praying the theater where is he is to stage a play stays standing.
This is a strong plot with strong characters, well written & fun.
He's an aedile in this book, an expensive & exhausting position for a man to hold in the Roman republic. First he learns just how clogged the sewers are right before the river starts to flood. Then an apartment building collapses killing a couple hundred, including some very unpleasant rich people. So he is dealing with lots of corruption by previous aediles & censors in issuing contracts to clean the sewers and covering up inadequacies in the building trade, then he gets the news that those unpleasant rich people were murdered. All this while planning to throw his (required by the office) funeral games for the entertainment of the masses. Decius is left hunting the murderer, through layers of cover ups and rising water levels in the forum while praying the theater where is he is to stage a play stays standing.
This is a strong plot with strong characters, well written & fun.