Wrath of the Furies

Starred review from August 10, 2015
A highly suspenseful plot and a moving resolution distinguish Saylor’s masterful third novel featuring Roman sleuth Gordianus the Finder in his younger years (after 2014’s Raiders of the Nile). In 88 B.C.E., King Mithridates of Pontus, who views himself as the military heir to Alexander the Great, has had an impressive string of victories against Roman forces in Asia. Gordianus, who has settled in Alexandria, is reeling from the revelation that his guide and teacher, the poet Antipater, betrayed his people to spy for Mithridates. When Gordianus learns that Antipater may be in peril, however, he concocts a way to enter Ephesus, a city now controlled by the Pontic king, to come to the poet’s aid. Gordianus’s arrival coincides with a horrific plan by Mithridates to coordinate simultaneous massacres of tens of thousands of Romans trapped in areas under his control. Even readers who know how history played out will be engrossed. Agent: Alan Nevins, Renaissance Literary and Talent.