Roman Games (Plinius Secundus Series #1)

Rome: September, 96 AD. Sextus Verpa, a notorious senatorial informer, is found stabbed to death in his bedroom. His slaves are suspected. Pliny, a young senator and lawyer, is ordered by the emperor to investigate. But the Roman Games have just begun, and for the next fifteen days, the courts are in recess. If Pliny can't identify the murderer in that time, Verpa's entire slave household will be burned alive. Pliny teams up with Martial, a starving author, and they unravel a plot that involves Jewish and Christian 'atheists,' exotic Egyptian cultists, and a missing horoscope forecasting the emperor's death.