Overall, I enjoyed this fifth book in this series about Libertus, a former enslaved British man who was freed and made a Roman citizen when his owner died. A mosaic artist by trade, he is regularly pulled into murder mysteries by his patron, Marcus Aurelius Septimus. I found this entry in the series to be entirely convoluted, with an unidentified body that disappears, strange and scary sounds emanating from who knows where, blood spots appearing out of nowhere, imperial rings showing up multiple times, and then more bodies appearing and disappearing. It seemed more like a farce than a murder mystery at times. I also found Libertus to be acting strangely out of character in this book, with him exhibiting paralyzing fear about the happenings in the temple. The plot was overly complicated, the characters were difficult to keep track of (too many temple officials and priests with unfamiliar titles), and the author took too long to get to the point. Then, in the end, Libertus explains everything to us, as if he had it figured out all along. It was a little more satisfying when he wrapped it up, but it didn't make up for the long slog ahead of that. So far, in five books, three have been pretty good, but the first and the fifth have been weaker. The best parts of the book are the characters Junio, his slave, and Gwellia, his former wife who was kidnapped into slavery and with whom he was reunited at the end of the last book. I'll keep reading in the hope that the plotting gets a little tighter and they improve.
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