Roman Blood — Steven Saylor

On an unseasonably warm spring morning in 80 B.C., Gordianus the Finder is summoned to the house of Cicero, a young advocate and orator who is preparing for his first important case. His client is an Umbrian landowner, one Sextus Roscius, accused of the unforgivable: the murder of his own father.

Gordianus accepts the commission to investigate the crime--in a society rife with deceit, betrayal, and conspiracy, where neither citizen nor slave can be trusted to speak the truth. But even Gordianus is not prepared for the spectacularly dangerous fireworks that will attend the resolution of this ugly, delicate case....