A Bitter Chill

July 25, 2005
Aurelia Marcella, the innkeeper heroine of Finnis's second first-century historical set in Roman Britannia (after 2003's Get Out or Die
), is engaging enough, though her deductive skills will never threaten Miss Marple. Aurelia's household's preparation for the feast of Saturnalia are disturbed by the unexpected arrival of a large party of nobles, whose family intrigues may have an impact on her own. When a servant is murdered, apparently having been mistaken for his master, the innkeeper and her sister fall under suspicion, and thus have additional motive to identify the killer. Finnis's use of colloquial speech can jar, and her plotting is less complex than that of, say, Steven Saylor in his Roma Sub Rosa series. Finnis also is not Saylor's equal in integrating the history of the time she describes into her plot, but those readers more interested in a fast-paced tale than in becoming drawn into a created world will be satisfied.