Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing)

“It is no wonder that Lawrence won awards for making Roman history interesting.”

Continuing my series of reviews on the entire Roman Mysteries series by children’s author, Caroline Lawrence, I have finally, definitively read the first book I hadn’t read before or knew anything about.

My goodness, how good it was too! For now, Lawrence’s writing seems to be growing with confidence just as her child detective characters grow too. Each book seems to have a specific focus around one of the four children. This one looks at the lead character – Flavia Gemina. With Nubia, Jonathan and Lupus, there were certain mysteries about their past which previous books explored (although we still have a lot more to learn about Nubia, the slave girl Flavia rescued, I suspect). Flavia though, was a fairly well known constant.

What we get this time then is a combination of learning more about the girl and solving a mystery. We start with the very young Flavia being told by her father that she must marry and have children or she will be letting him down. Her father is a widower and has no other children. The bloodline dies if she doesn’t marry and he thinks that should be soon. She’s far too independent, running around solving mysteries, and it is time to settle down.

Flavia blames the woman who seems to have caught her father’s eye, Cartilia Poplica, believing she has bewitched him. Flavia and her friends set out to find out the truth. Meanwhile, it is the festival of Saturnalia and Flavia has a dream tell her she has to carry out the twelve tasks of Hercules in order to find out the truth. But how can she do such things?

As we journey with these young friends to find the truth, we find out more about them and the tangled love affairs of all the supporting characters too. We’re reaching a point where the books are no longer stand-alones and so we stop getting potted summaries of what might have been missed for new readers. Now Lawrence seems to be assuming anyone reading the sixth book in the series is already invested in the characters; and she’s right to do so!

In previous reviews I’ve talked about my concern that the author was giving a less-than-subtle push for Christianity. By book V, I was pretty much certain this is definitely the case. I then googled Lawrence (something I rarely do with authors before I’ve written my review so that I don’t get swayed by biased views). Sure enough, it seems the author has embraced her Judeo-Christian roots and turned to at least some form of Jewish Christianness. So that seemed to be the final nail in the coffin then.

But in book VI there’s no such push. If anything, there seems to be a delight in the pagan beliefs of the time. Gods are worshipped and admired and they seemingly give visions to our heroes along the way. I’m really rather delighted to see this and makes me much more accepting of any Christian references.

As always, there’s misconceptions, false leads and deceptions that have taken place and the heroes – especially Flavia – have to unpick these and sometimes realise they’ve got things wrong and caused upsets. This is a common theme. Lawrence likes to make the point to young minds that sometimes we can get the wrong end of the stick.

It is no wonder that Lawrence won awards for making Roman history interesting. These are books for anyone young at heart (I think I’m now past the age where anyone could call me ‘young man’ any longer, so ‘at heart’ is all I have left) who loves anything to do with ancient Rome. I do find myself wondering if there is anyone who has written a similar series about ancient Egypt? I would read those happily!

For now, I have these books and that will have to do. It is certainly no hardship. Easy to read, fun while complex enough to leave you guessing about whatever ‘mystery’ Flavia has her sights on now, I’m enjoying every word, every single minute I spend reading. I’m not even halfway through the series yet – I do hope the high standard remains!

My Verdict:

Read all the reviews for this series:

• Reflection: The Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries I – The Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries II – The Secrets of Vesuvius by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries III – The Pirates of Pompeii
• The Roman Mysteries IV – The Assassins of Rome by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries V – The Dolphins of Laurentum by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries VI – The Twelve Tasks of Flavia Gemina by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries VII – The Enemies of Jupiter by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries VIII – The Gladiators from Capua by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries IX – The Colossus of Rhodes by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries X – The Fugitive from Corinth by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries XI – The Sirens of Surrentum by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries XII – The Charioteer of Delphi by Caroline Lawrence
• The Roman Mysteries XIII – The Slave-girl from Jerusalem by Caroline Lawrence

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 7.9 million times.

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