Ovid (Marcus Corvinus Mysteries)

by David Wishart

Book Overview

When young aristocratic layabout Marcus Corvinus is approached by the stepdaughter of the exiled and now dead Roman poet Ovid and asked to clear the return of the ashes for burial, he cheerfully... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0340646837
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.2" x 1.0" x 4.4"

Customer Reviews

Blurbage!

Comic, bawdy and extremely engrossing, OVID is an intriguing tale of mystery and suspense. 'So tell me.' I was getting pretty angry myself now. I'd had a long hard day and I wasn't taking this crap from anyone. 'You just tell me, Dad. Tell me why the emperor hates a dead poet so much he won't allow his ashes back to Rome. Tell me why when I ask questions about a scandal so old that you can't even smell it any more everyone keeps his mouth shut closer than a Vestal's kneecaps. Tell me why I nearly end up in the Tiber with my throat cut...' Such are the frustrated words of Marcus Corvinus, a young man who likes to have a good time and enjoys wine, women and laughter far more than a hard day's work. He also happens to be the grandson of the Roman poet Ovid's former patron. So when Ovid's stepdaughter, the luscious Rufia Perilla, begs him to recover the poet's ashes and bring them back to Rome, how can Marcus refuse? Not that the task turns out to be easy: official permission is abruptly denied. And as Marcus starts asking questions in the higher echelons of Roman society he finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a web of secrecy, treachery and deceit.

First Book in the Series

David Wishart was born in Arbroath, Scotland. He studied Classics - Latin and Greek - at Edinburgh University and after graduation taught for four years in a secondary school. He then retrained as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language and worked abroad for eleven years, in Kuwait, Greece and Saudi Arabia. He returned to Scotland in 1990 and now lives with his family in Carnoustie, mixing writing with teaching EFL and study skills at Dundee University. This is the first in the series of novel by the author featuring Marcus Corvinus, an amateur sleuth and connoisseur of fine wines. The books take a similar theme to the Falco novels of Lindsey Davis, but Falco and Corvinus are from different periods of Roman history. The time period and class of Wishart's sleuth are different. Falco lives in Flavian Rome and has just worked his way into the Equestrian class, while Corvinus is a patrician in the age of Tiberius. However both Corvinus and Falco have a wife behind them, who it could be said, is the making of them. The books are popular and for anyone who likes Lindsey Davis or Steven Saylor are a must. This one as the title suggest is about Ovid and the mystery behind what he actually did to get himself exiled from Rome.

the varian debacle

a lot like Lindsay Davis Falco, the hero is a fun character. Fun reading for those who like Roman history

An excellent mystery but I have a question or two

I thank you or your recommendation of David Wishart's Marcus Covinus mysteries in my Personal Recommendations section. I bought [i]Ovid[/i] and enjoyed it very much. It was as close to a page-turner as I have yet found in historical mysteries. The author's knowledge of ancient Rome in the Early Principate is quite good, both socially and politically. But I do wonder why he chooses to use some of the terms that he does. For instance, he uses the term "Market Square" for the Roman Forum leading the unsuspecting into picturing a bazaar-like atmosphere, whereas the Forum was so much more. It was the political and social center of Rome, the banking center, and the legal center, as well. Similarly, he calls a toga, the draped wrap for which Rome is still famous, a "mantle", implying some sort of a light cloak wrapped loosely around the body such as the ancient Greeks wore. As anyone who has read much about Ancient Rome or even looked at one of their statues of a togate man can easily see, this is hardly the case. The toga was a quite large and heavy item worn formally and draped in a very definite, prescribed fashion. Mr. Wishart's use of the terms was initially somewhat confusing and I believe that he would have served his readers and the story better had he used the terms with which almost all people who would buy his books would be familiar.