Since its appearance in bookshops five years ago, Caroline Lawrence's The Roman Mysteries series of fun historical novels has built up a faithful and appreciative fan base. The publication of a new story is always greeted with great enthusiasm by regular readers, and with the recent announcement that The Roman Mysteries will soon be adapted into a blockbusting television series, it looks like the popularity of Lawrence's books is about to soar.
Lawrence was born in the United States, but studied classics at the University of Cambridge in England. In 2000, she wrote her first Roman mystery, The Thieves Of Ostia, and it was soon obvious that she had hit on a winning formula.
The Roman Mysteries are just what it says on the packaging. Take four young teenage friends in ancient Rome, let them loose to solve a crime, and mix it all up with accurate and fascinating historical detail - there you have the ingredients promised on the cover.
Set around AD80, The Roman Mysteries blends ancient history with modern, cartoon-like action. Lawrence's lightness of touch and her eye for comic detail make sure her stories don't become weighed down by historical fact. Her attention to detail is spot on, but so is her speed of storytelling. It never pauses on its way to the solution to the mystery in hand.
In The Fugitive From Corinth, Flavia and her friends Nubia, Jonathan and Lupus, set off in pursuit of a would-be murderer. Flavia's handsome young tutor, Aristo, has got himself caught-up in a murder plan and then left town in a hurry. Why has he betrayed the people close to him?
The four Roman teens have to gather their wits and dig out the clues to get to the bottom of Aristo's strange behaviour.
Their investigations lead them to the celebrated oracle in Delphi, and then on to the Acropolis in Athens. No stone is left unturned as the teenage detectives piece together the clues they discover. Of course, everything turns out well in the end as the mysterious threads of the story are tied into the concluding knot.