Jane Finnis A Bitter Chill

A Bitter Chill

Jane Finnis

Poisoned Pen, Sept 2005, $24.95, 352 pp.

ISBN 1590581938

The Roman settlers in the province of Britannia near the town of Ebornacum (later known as York) in Dec 95 AD are getting ready to celebrate the holiday Saturnalia. Nobody is more excited than innkeeper Aurelia Marcella who expects no overnight customers due to the inclement weather. She is very disappointed when a very important Roman family comes up from Londinium to search for their runaway son who wants to marry a local girl and not the woman his parents chose for him.

Aurelia's sister is shocked to learn that her fianc Candidus is the rich Roman son of a senatorial family. A confrontation leads to the threat of him being disinherited but he chooses love over money. When his father's slave is killed in the patriarch's bed, Aurelia and her sister are accused of the murder. When a second slave is murdered, it verifies the patriarch's fear that someone is trying to kill him. Aurelia agrees to help in the investigation once she is cleared of any suspicion but the killer strikes again mounting a full scale investigation with Aurelia's sister and Candidus as two of the prime suspects.

Readers who liked the first book in this series GET OUT OR DIE will find A BITTER CHILL is even more exciting. It is a fantastic historical mystery that gives insight into the Roman culture adjusting to life in the back water provinces. The characters are well drawn and the support cast plays key roles and are as important to the storyline as the protagonist. Aurelia is an independent businesswoman who would have been at home in twenty-first century America instead of a Roman province where women were considered second citizens.

Harriet Klausner