After a slightly shaky start I quite enjoyed this. As a rival to Saylor and Davis as the reigning champions of Roman crime fiction Freisenbruch has a way to go but there's plenty of promise. The story revolves around a real historical figure, (albeit one we know almost nothing about), Hortensia, daughter of famed orator and rival of Cicero Hortensius. In the midst of doing nothing much with her life Hortensia stumbles onto a mystery involving a dead Vestal and uncovers a plot to assassinate one of Rome's leading figures, ably assisted by the revenge-seeking Lusitanian slave Lucrio, Hortensia has to solve the mystery while putting her own life in mortal danger. Some of the set-pieces in the novel, such as Hortensia defending a wronged wife in court are brilliantly handled, however, other parts such as the denouement and climax are not quite as deftly handled. There is quite a bit of evidence of an author finding her feet, but there is plenty of promise and I look forward to further entries in the series. ( )

Hortensia, daughter of the (still?) king of the Roman orators, is asked to look into the death of a Vestal Virgin whose body was fished out of the Tiber.

I found the character of Hortensia (a real person but involved here in fictitious events) fascinating and I would like to read more stories about her. Unfortunately the chief baddy was too much of a stereotype villain to be credible and Hortensia's relationship with her henchman also strained credibility. Also I'm starting to wonder if there aren't too many investigators rubbing shoulders with the famous characters of Republican Rome. Half the time I was expecting Hortensia to bump into Gordianus. ( )