The chariots of Calyx, by Rosemary Rowe

 

Libertus, a former slave and current mosaic artist, has developed a reputation for solving murders, and in this fourth installment of Rosemary Rowe's series about Roman-era Britain, Libertus is asked by the Roman governor of Britain, Pertinax, to solve the murder of the corn officer. Caius Monnius has been strangled in his bed, and everyone is a suspect, including his young second wife, his mother, and his first wife, who all live together. There are also missing documents and money, and as Libertus follows the clues, he unearths crimes and intrigues that complicate the murder investigation including rigged betting on horse races and fraudulent sales of poor quality corn. As in the earlier books, Libertus and his slave Junio get people to open up to them as they develop their theories about who is responsible for the murder, resulting in a final surprise reveal in the last pages.

Spook Street, by Mick Herron

 

In the 4th novel in the Slow Horses series by Mick Herron, one of the main characters disappears after his grandfather, who has dementia, kills an intruder. River is trying to figure out who's trying to kill his grandfather, and Jackson Lamb and the other slow horses are trying to do the same and also find out where River is. This book raises an interesting question about what happens to people who know a lot of secrets get dementia. How does the government keep the secrets safe along with the people who hold them? This series just keeps getting better and better. The writing is so good that it just propels the narrative along. The characters are funny and quirky, and the dialog hilarious. 

The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley

I liked this book a lot. The main character is hired to be the companion of a man who was rescued from the 19th century just before he was known to die of exposure in the arctic north during an exploration to find the Northwest Passage. There are others who have similarly been rescued from other centuries in the past, and the government is trying to determine if they can not only survive in a different timeline but also if they can be used for clandestine purposes. The main character falls in love with her charge, but tries to hide her feelings, all the while hiding key details about his circumstances from him (including the fact that he has a tracker embedded under the skin of his back so the government can see everywhere he goes). Like all time travel books, there are lots of things that don't make sense when logic is applied, but if you can ignore that, this makes for a really fun and interesting book.