Dana Stabenow, Disappearance of a Scribe (Head of Zeus 2022)
47 BCE. Caesar has returned to Rome, and Cleopatra VII must bring order back to Alexandria.
Tetisheri, her Eye of Isis, records her cases on a scroll in the Great Library. A certain Grafeas had gone missing. Grafeas, a scribe, had been conducting a profitable business recording legal cases. Librarian Sosigenes reports a spate of organised book thefts targeting the most ancient of the documents.
Fishermen discover a body anchored at the bottom of the sea, his feet embedded in cement—‘Rhakotis sandals’. Aristander of the Shurta (Police) says it’s the second such case he’s seen. Tetisheri consults the architect Vitruvius to learn about pozzolan, the pit ash that makes cement seawater-proof. The Roman legate Gaius Aurelius Cotta is also enquiring about pozzolan.
The Eye conducts a merry chase around Alexandria to solve the case. Ever one to put on a good show, Cleopatra stages the big reveal for maximum effect and shows a clemency the historical Cleo was not known for.
I loved the usage of the authentic words for things—a case is called máthema; widths are measured in plethra. People swear ‘by Sobek’s balls’. Weeks are measured in ‘ten-day’s. Metaphors are period-specific—her love Apollodorus’s green eyes are a ‘color straight out of the olivine mines of Punt’; a man has ‘the four-square solidity of the Roman veteran and nothing less than the authority of a tesserarius’.
The writing style is fluent and colourful. It pulls you into a world where 47 BCE is the present day, making you feel as if you are right there. Attention is paid to what people eat and drink and wear. The characters are fascinating; the descriptions gorgeous; the plot swift-paced and the dialogue convincing.
Hooked by chapter one, I couldn’t put it down.
This is Book 2 in the Eye of Isis series.
This review first appeared in the Historical Novels Review.
Susie Helme 
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