Widow's Pique

Rating:
Summary: Weakest novel to date
Review: It's unfortunate, but Todd's tenth Claudia Seferius mystery is probably the worst.
Todd has has our lovable heroine hotfooting it off to the tiny Roman governed client kingdom of Histria. Failure to read the contractual small print means she thinks she's off to negotiate a lucrative wine contract but after considerable stringing along she discovers that it's in fact to marry the King. After ariving on the peninsula she finds herself chaperoned by the effortlessly personable Mazares, the oak tree that is Pavan and the King's close family comprising the King's brother, Kazan, his wife Rosmerta, their sons, Marek and Mir and finally Vanu, married to one of the sons but sleeping with Kazan. As usual bodies start turning up although these are historical. - Mazares first wife, Brac - first in line to throne, the old king Dol, Mazares, son and daughter, a boat builder, the physician until we get quite a list. After dressing up as a goddess for the Zeltane festival Caludia spends most her time figuring out how to escape her impending matimony and the rest half heartedly chasing down ridiculous murder theories and spending time at the local stray waifs farm headed up by Salome, Tobias, Lora and the rest of the white robed Amazons.
All the while we get Todd's small chapter inserts into the mind of the murderer - this time called Nosferatu.
It's all a bit tedious until Orbilio turns up to turn over Claudia's stomach again and save the day, Claudia, and anyone else who happens to be around. As I said, this is the weakest of the Serferius novels simply because it's not exciting in any way and Claudia's heart's just not in it. Maybe we've a classic case of Davis here - our heroine needs to be in Rome to be at her best. Hopefully the next one will have Claudia back to her spitting, fiery self...