Family Commitments (Marcus Corvinus Book 20)

Reading each new book in this series is like visiting old friends: good-hearted Corvinus, always ready for a new mystery, sharp as a tack Perilla, snobbish Bathyllus, and Corvinus' mother and step-father. The family matters involve checking on his stepfather who is behaving strangely and helping Bathyllus' brother who is on the run after his master is killed. At first Corvinus believes that the murder is a fairly straightforward if messy crime, but it soon becomes a very complicated one involving Rome's big crime boss and possibly some imperials, specifically Messalina. The dead man and his slave are not who they presented themselves to be and Corvinus soon discovers that he is involved in the shady machinations of palace bureaucrats and Perilla's ex-husband, a really nasty guy, who are busy plotting or laying the groundwork for future plots. He finally solves the problem with the help of the crime boss and is able to help Bathyllus' brother find a new place. The mystery of his father in law's strange behavior is also explained, proving that this octogenarian still has his canny wits. This is an enjoyable series and undoubtedly Corvinus will be involved in more mysteries in the future, probably involving his notorious cousin Messalina and her successor as empress, the far more shrewd and ambitous Aggrippina.

Corvinus is without a task when this book starts. Then he gets two in short order neither of which he wants and both related to family. His mother believes her old doddering husband is cheating and decides Marcus should follow him to uncover the truth. He of course cant believe this is true and cant get out of this situation either. He follows Priscus and seems him embrace a young woman at an antiques store and disappear into the back room. NOT GOOD. While walking home, he sees his servant in the wrong place. Oops he is visiting his long lost still enslaved brother. Marcus has to help as pater familias but also its harboring a slave and oops his master has been murdered. REALLY NOT GOOD. As Marcus tries to unwind this mess he uncovers way more than is safe to know all the way back to the emperor. Family commitments pull in very dangerous ways in this entry.

This entry brings Corvinus back to Rome, and smack into the middle of two unsavory family situations -- the sudden appearance of his major-domo's brother (a very shady character) and the possible infidelity of his mother's second husband. Corvinus gets involved in investigating both situations, but as is often the case in these novels, what looked simple turns out to be complicated, and political. A good outing with Corvinus, if not the best in the series.

Always enjoy dropping in on Marcus, not quite as full bodied a read as some of the others, maybe Marcus is getting a little old! Still enjoyable!

as always a great read but-- book 20 in the series? i only count 18 others! I'm cooking Meton's guinea fowls marinated in cherry juice and juniper this weekend.

One of his better books.

I've been a Marcus Corvinus fan for years. I enjoy how Wishart handles ancient Rome.

The most recent of the Marcus Corvinus series. As good as all the rest. Recommended for those who like the series.

It is May, AD44, and purple-striper Marcus Corvinus and his wife Perilla are back in Rome after their eventful jaunt around Gaul. Marcus would like the world to believe that he’s happy spending his days crawling around Rome’s bars, putting the world to rights, untroubled by crimes to solve. They’d be wrong. He is, in fact, at a bit of a loose end. This fortunate state won’t last long. Firstly, Marcus’ mother comes round convinced that Marcus’ stepfather, a man who has always seemed to favour antiques over women, is having an affair, insisting that Marcus should find out exactly what’s going on. And then Marcus’ butler Bathyllus starts to get that guilty, pale and ill look. It’s not surprising. His brother, a fellow slave, has turned up after many years and he’s on the run, wanted for the murder of his master. Marcus has no choice but to help out and that’s when it all starts to go wrong. This is no straightforward case. Marcus should have run a mile.Family Commitments is the nineteenth (not the twentieth as the back of the cover says) of David Wishart’s fantastic Marcus Corvinus series. This series has had more than one publisher over the years and I’ve worried for its future but the good news is that, although I’ll miss those elegant Severn House editions and wish Corvinus still had a home with them, the author is now publishing the books independently. I’m hoping this means that we’ll get many more of them and I’m very keen to give them my support. If you haven’t read this marvellous series, please do! Set during the first half of the 1st century AD, they bring this fascinating period of Roman history alive. And Marcus and Perilla are both perfectly placed to comment on it – they’re patrician, very well-connected and even know emperors personally, including the really bad ones. It also means that the crimes Marcus investigates are particularly juicy. As this crime especially demonstrates.You can enjoy each of these novels as standalone mysteries but there is so much pleasure to be had reading this series. I’ll never stop enjoying Marcus, quite possibly my favourite Roman detective. He likes to think he’s satirical, when actually he’s rather sarcy, but he’s most certainly witty, likes a goblet of wine or three, and has his hands full trying to manage the staff while trying and failing to maintain his air of studied aloof detachment. The fact that their chef Meton is a genius with flavours does much to make up for his psychopathic temperament while Bathyllus, the long-suffering butler, has fine-tuned his sardonic attitude into an art form. He is, though, the perfect major domo. And Marcus Corvinus will do anything he can for him. Perilla does all that a matron restricted by strict patrician codes of conduct can do to support her husband, while trying to persuade him to cut back on the swearing and wine guzzling. But it’s Perilla’s input that often saves the day, much to her husband’s irritation. Getting to know these people over the last couple of decades or so has been an absolute joy.Family Commitments has such a good mystery at its heart and it’s not long before Marcus realises he’s out of his depth. It’s such a tangled knot of intrigue, involving gangsters, cut-throats, politicians, the powerful and the desperate. I did get stuck a couple of times as the number of people involved increases. I found it easy to lose track. No wonder Marcus and Perilla find this one a difficult case to solve. But the way that it all comes together is so brilliantly done. It’s worth the brain ache of one section of the novel. And so much of it is so witty!Rome is brought to life so well, especially the rather posh bit of it. This is a world of dinner parties and literary evenings, but we also encounter the other side of things as Marcus spends much of his time wandering around Rome on foot. And then there’s the dark shadow cast by slavery. As a patrician, Marcus would have taken slaves for granted and would have depended on them – he certainly depends on Bathyllus – but there are moments here when he reflects on what Bathyllus and his brother have endured and how, ultimately, they are all alone in the world. Marcus wants to do his bit to show them that they have him. It’s all rather complicated and no doubt these are unfamiliar thoughts for a man such as Marcus Corvinus. But it’s rather good that he has them. I love the way in which David Wishart depicts the relationships between master and slave, even though I suspect this is all rather wishful thinking.This is one of those rare series that I have followed and adored from the very beginning. I still remember reading Ovid all those years ago. Such a wonderful book. Right from the start this series has included some of the most famous and infamous personalities of the day and Family Commitments is no different. This is a time when it very much paid to keep your head below the parapet. Unfortunately, Marcus Corvinus can’t do that. His curiosity – after all he is rich and doesn’t have a job to distract him – leads him into all kinds of trouble and I can’t get enough of it. More, please!

This thrilling Roman mystery from the formidable author, David Wishart, is the 19th volume of the ever engrossing "Marcus Corvinus" series.Historical details concerning this Roman mystery can be found at the back of the book within the Author's Note, while at the beginning you'll find a wonderful list of Dramatis Personae, with real historical and great fictional ones.The author always intends to stay as close to real historical events, and so to make this mystery as accurate as possible historically, a feat that certainly should be appreciated.Once again the story-telling is of a superb quality from this author, all characters, whether real historical or wonderful fictional, come splendidly to life within this mystery, and the atmosphere of Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius comes breathtakingly off the pages.The story is set in Rome, in May, AD 44, and our main fictional character, Marcus Corvinus, finds himself now investigating two cases at once, the first being the supposedly love overtures from his stepfather, Priscus, husband to Corvinus's mother, Vipsania, with the proprietrix, Polyxene, and the second being the murder of, Oplonius, about a very expensive necklace, in which Bathyllus's younger brother, Damon, is also involved, while lurking in the background there's the crook, Sempronius Eutacticus, concerning that same necklace.What is to follow is an intriguing political and exciting domestic Roman mystery, in which Corvinus, with his intellectual sidekick, his wife, Rufia Perilla, will get involved not only with the aforementioned people and crimes, but also with the powerful high and mighty of Rome, and in this dangerous environment Corvinus must try to solve first Priscus's overtures, and after that and more importantly the second case that seems more than just a case about the necklace.Highly recommended, for this series is still as great as from the beginning, and what this episode is concerned, I like to call it: "Another Marcus Corvinus Masterpiece"!

When Marcus Corvinus reluctantly follows up his mother's demand to investigate whether his elderly, bookish step-father is having an affaire (!), Corvinus incidentally discovers why his upright, uptight butler Bathyllus has been behaving quite so out-of-character, and what begins as a fairly routine investigation moves all too quickly into the dangerous realms of Roman politics and secrets so dark that the future for Corvinus and his family may be extremely short. The story is told by Corvinus in his frank, slightly bibulous, certainly irreverent manner. From old friends from his youth through Perilla's nastily-ambitious ex-husband and the 'five-star crook' Eutacticus, Corvinus' broad range of contacts are all brilliantly portrayed, and the routine life of Rome and its residents just IS, without any need for lengthy descriptions or explanations.If you're looking for a fascinating mystery, set in Ancient Rome, full of careful research hidden inside a deceptively-casual, Chandler-esque style of writing, with skilfully-drawn characters, then you can't go wrong with this series, and 'Family Commitments' is another can't-stop-until-I've-finished-when-will-the-next-one-be-published book from David Wishart.29 Jun 17. Having just received the 'Printed by Amazon Fulfillment' paperback edition, be aware of the book's large dimensions, and that the pages are numbered from the inside facing page, which looks rather weird.

Bathyllus is acting weird, well, weirder than is usual for a member of the Corvinus household. The reason for Bathyllus's subterfuge (food going missing) soon becomes clear and the mystery begins. Wishart is very adept at weaving a good story around actual events; even if he does use artistic license on occasion, and his descriptions of the characters and environs of Ancient Rome are vivid and help to make this an enjoyable read. The machinations of the Imperial civil service and its freedmen, and Corvinus's penchant for sticking his nose in regardless of the danger, remind me of Wishart's earlier novels - Germanicus & Sejanus. I can see where this is going and I hope I'm right, Corvinus's niece better watch out..! I bought and read this on Kindle before my hard copy arrived, nothing like the feel and smell of a real life book.

Loquacious, irreverent, humorous.Perfect.Exactly what I expect of Wishart's caustic sleuth, Marcus Corvinus, and his wife Perilla as they discover that family can be fatal, quirky, intriguing.Only problem is this has been published through a sloppy Amazon paperback rather than the crisp Severn House Publishing. Wishart tells us why on his website but, honestly, Corvinus deserves better than the shoddy paperback print that cannot even get the number of this instalment correct (19 not 20).Ho hum.