Fateful Day, The (A Libertus Mystery of Roman Britain, 15)

Rosemary Rowe has done it again. The Fateful Day is a marvelous mystery. I literally read it late into every night until I finished the book.

The story starts with his patron, Marcus Septimus Aurelius, away and his country villa completely empty of almost all of its furnishings and the slaves are discovered dead at the far end of the orchard. How could this have happened? Since Libertus was to oversee the planting of grape vines in a newly acquired land and Marcus’s wife is staying at another estate, Libertus feels that he must discover who committed this crime. When Libertus proceeds to the Garrison Commander at Glevum he discovers all of the city councilors at the garrison and he is not allowed to see the commander who personally knows Libertus. Something is happening and he discovered that he will get minimal help from others. This story picks up right after the last book, Dark Omens with many of the characters appearing in this book so this adds to ease of following the storyline.

As for the storyline, it proceeds with no real leads. There are many inconsistencies that a clear picture is hard to put together, but Libertus starts to make sense of the events. There are twists and dead ends that keep your interest.

As usual, Rosemary Rowe weaves daily Roman life into her novels. In this one, she weaves in the life of land slaves into the story. To date, most slaves have been house slaves which were considered a little better off than land slaves. A glimpse of a slaves life come to life especially when Rosemary Rowe has others slaves behave to Libertus treats them and his slaves’ actions.

The B-story continues to evolve. You see more of the young slaves, Minimus and Maximus, and Libertus’s wife, Gwellia, and son, Junio. There is again, as there was in the last novel in this series, a new character added to the Libertus family mix. Unfortunately, there also is a loss of one of the regulars.

If you are considering this as the first Rosemary Rowe novel to read, go ahead. Nothing depends solely upon any previous novel storyline. If you like this one, go back and start the series. You will be glad that you did.

Overall, a marvelous story that kept my interest and entertained is why I rated this novel a five star novel.

Another great Libertus mystery. I adore Rosemary Rowe's books on Roman Britain. I can't wait for the next Libertus mystery. What a pity about Maximus though.

The Fateful Day is the latest book in the Libertus Mystery Series set in Ancient Roman Britain. The book (and series) is narrated in the first-person by Libertus, a freed slave who runs a mosaic workshop. Libertus seems to be writing his memoirs one month after the events, as we learn later. He records momentous events with asides explaining how he had no idea how important an event would be until much later in time.

Libertus struggles along, attempting to deal with a huge disaster at his former owner's country estate, and at the same time run his own business. Unwittingly, Libertus gets caught up in the political events of his time. The story moves along at a steady pace, with Libertus carefully studying all the clues and interviewing all the suspects. As a freed slave, he remains a "client" of his former owner, Marcus. It is Marcus who sets Libertus on the road to his latest mystery, a rather gruesome one, to be honest.

The Fateful Day is book number fifteen in the Libertus series, so the protagonist is now old and gray. He is also, oddly, a slave-owner. One would think that having been a slave would make one less likely to want to subject another human being to the same indignity, but for Libertus that is not the case. That is one of the reasons I don't like the main character much, I have to say. I like my Ancient Roman protagonists to be more enlightened.

The writing style is quite formal and the dialog is a bit wordy, presumably to mimic how a former slave, and old artisan would write his own diaries. We are inside Libertus's head, and allowed to know his thoughts on all the events he describes. If you have followed the series from the beginning, you will encounter most of the characters you know from previous books.

Readers who enjoy historical novels will be pleased with all the details about life in ancient Roman Britain, on the Roman side and on the Celtic side. When the tragedy touches Libertus personally, we learn much about funeral rituals in that era. And there is not just one death; there are over a dozen!

Please visit my full and illustrated review at Italophile Book Reviews.

Rowe as always keeps multiple plates in the air with great dexterity.

This exciting mystery is already the 15th part of the wonderful and very enjoyable "Libertus" series.
The author's foreword is as always very well researched and explained in a very clear fashion, and so making it all very understandable, but one slight mistake is included in the text for it states that the story is situated in the Spring of the year AD 192, but it really should the year AD 193.
Story-telling is as usual of a very good quality, for the author has the ability to keep you gripped and entertained with her stories from start to finish.
Like its predecessor the book is set in the year AD 193, it's Spring now and we find ourselves in the short reign of Emperor Helvius Pertinax, and the tale provides once again very lifelike characters who come splendidly to life in this exciting mystery.
The story begins when Libertus finds a travelling carriage pulled up outside his Patron Marcus Septimus Aurelius's villa, who has gone to Rome to visit the Emperor Pertinax, but when he reaches it instead of being thanked for his efforts he receives a torrent of abuse when the carriage-driver departs.
When Libertus goes back the next day to the villa, not only will he find it desolate, but also that all the house-slaves are not to be found, until he's confronted with a gruesome discovery.
What will follow is a suspenseful mystery in which Libertus starts his investigation, and where he will finally come face to face with old acquaintances, the Egidius brothers, while in the background of his investigation there are devastating occurrences happening which will turn a whole Empire upside down as well as the lives of Libertus himself and his family.
Highly recommended, for this is another great mystery and one where we find that "Our Libertus Overcomes His Fateful Day"!

book is great, had to buy from a different source, as the book I received had dust cover and cover from the book I wanted, but the inside of the book is 'The German Agent' by J Sydney Jones, definitely not a book I wanted to read or own .