Great characters, masterful suspense are the hallmarks of Caroline Lawrence’s Roman mysteries. She has that rare gift of genuine writing talent – to draw you into an historical setting long gone, as if you are really there watching over all the characters and the action.
Any child who finds history boring (sadly, that’s most of today’s kids) will take a different view once they’ve been introduced to Lawrence’s masterful storytelling. Lovers of history meanwhile will devour it.
September AD 80. Flavia and her friends go to Rome to celebrate the Festival of Jupiter at Senator Cornix's town house. They befriend the young charioteer Scopas and quickly find themselves embroiled in a campaign to sabotage one of the rival racing factions. Can they catch the culprit in time? Violence, deception, secret identities and a deadly curse are all ingredients in the latest powerful instalment in this bestselling series.
Caroline Lawrence was our Guest Editor in September 2102 - Click here to see her selections.
Caroline Lawrence was born in London. Her American parents returned to the United States shortly afterwards and she grew up in Bakersfield, California with her younger brother and sister. Her father taught English and drama in a local high school and her mother was an artist.
When she was twelve, Caroline's family moved to Stanford University in northern California so that her father could study Linguistics. Caroline inherited her father's love of words and her mother's love of art. She subsequently studied Classics at Berkeley, where she won a Marshall Scholarship to Cambridge. There, at Newnham College, she studied Classical Art and Archaeology.
The books in the series are: The Thieves of Ostia The Secrets of Vesuvius The Pirates of Pompeii The Assassins of Rome The Dolphins of Laurentum The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina The Enemies of Jupiter The Gladiators from Capua The Colossus of Rhodes The Fugitive from Corinth The Sirens of Surrentum The Charioteer of Delphi The Slave Girl from Jerusalem The Beggar of Volubilis The Scribes from Alexandria The Prophet from Ephesus And finally… The Man from Pomegranate Street
THE ROMAN MYSTERIES have sold over 1.1 million copies since its introduction in 2001 and in 2009 won the Classical Association Prize for 'a significant contribution to the public understanding of Classics' THE ROMAN MYSTERIES has been recognised as having an exemplary combination of entertainment and education.
