I picked up a couple of Steven Saylor’s Rome Sub Rosa novels because James Lileks praises them highly, and I have a high opinion of James’ taste. Unfortunately, I find I can’t share his enthusiasm.

Not to say the two I’ve read have been bad books. Catilina’s Riddle, which I just finished, and The Venus Throw, which I reviewed a while ago, are well-researched and well-written mysteries centered on the political conflicts that convulsed the Roman republic during the ascendancy of Cicero and the rise of Julius Caesar.

This story starts in 63 B.C. Gordianus the Finder, the detective hero of the series, has settled down on a farm in Etruria, some distance north of Rome, which he inherited from a friend. His new farm is entirely surrounded by the properties of his late friend’s siblings, and they (with one exception) do not welcome him. But Gordianus has had his belly full of Rome and its intrigues. The simple life of a gentleman farmer looks very good to him.

Neverthless, his past—in the person of an agent of his old patron, Cicero—intrudes. Cicero has an odd request. He wants Gordianus to play host to (and to spy on) Cicero’s own greatest political enemy, the charismatic young politician Catilina. Gordianus is sick of Cicero, and initially refuses. But he changes his mind after a headless body shows up in one of his barns. He interprets this as a threat, and begins to realize that you can flee Rome, but Rome will always follow you. Thus he gets more and more enmeshed in the plots and counter-plots of Cicero and Catilina. As in The Venus Throw, the actual murder mystery—the question of the headless body, along with two more that follow—turns out to be a footnote to the great events that overtake them all by the end of the story.

As is so common in historical novels, much time is taken up with exposition. It wasn’t as endless here as in The Venus Throw, but it did slow the narrative considerably. (I have to wonder, in all honesty, if the average reader doesn’t have the same problem with my Viking novels.)

Saylor’s purpose in this story, by his own account, is to rehabilitate the reputation of the historical Catilina, who has generally been painted as a villain and a traitor to Rome.

I’m not sure I’m convinced. Saylor makes much of Catalina’s personal charm, but fails to make the case (as far as I could see) that he was a great patriot with a well-considered program for his city.

Also, I must admit (well-known homophobe that I am), that a semi-romantic scene, in which Gordianus and Catalina share a bath and a moonlight naked walk, just gave me the creeps.

I think I’ve given Gordianus the Finder all the chances I’m going to give. Not bad books, but I find little in them to love.