Written In Blood is the third book by Fiona Forsyth featuring the poet Ovid. We first met Forsyth’s Ovid in Poetic Justice, as he begins his exile in Tomis, on the coast of modern-day Romania. He’s depressed, homesick, angry. He doesn’t understand why he’s there. No one has told him what his crime is. Was it for writing the Ars Amatoria, a notoriously “immoral” book of which Augustus disapproved? Or for something worse?
The Ovid of Poetic Justice hates his new surroundings and immediately begins lobbying for a return to his beloved Rome. He writes poems decrying the far-flung provincial backwater he has been banished to. As you can imagine, this doesn’t go down well with the locals and Ovid makes few friends, though he does rekindle an old acquaintance with a Roman soldier called Avitius. In his youth, Ovid served alongside Avitius on the watch in Rome.
By the time of Written in Blood, six years later, Ovid’s attitude to Tomis has mellowed considerably. He now has a closeknit circle of indulgent friends, prepared to put up with his constant drinking, occasional womanising and histrionic complaints. In the second book in the series, Death and the Poet, he is even joined by his wife, the formidable Fabia.
In the intervening years, Ovid has found himself at the centre of a series of adventures involving mysterious cults, murky local politics and malign agents sent by powerful forces in Rome. Trouble seems to have a habit of latching on to him. From time to time, the great poet has been forced to put down his papyrus and turn investigator, with Avitius serving as his gruff, long-suffering sidekick.
The idea of taking a historical figure and turning them into a detective is not new. The more unlikely the detective, the more fun it is. And Ovid as detective is a lot of fun. The conceit works best, as here, when the “detectivisation” arises organically. Ovid’s exile from Rome means that he is a fish out of water, isolated, vulnerable and occasionally in danger. He must use his wits to navigate his way through a strange environment. In other words, he has to investigate to survive.
Written in Blood begins in Rome with the Empress Livia (Siân Phillips in the BBC adaption of I, Claudius) mourning the death of her husband Augustus (Brian Blessed). Tiberius (George Baker) is now emperor.
Meanwhile in Tomis, a mysterious party of four led by Nicomedes, a faithful servant of Livia’s, turns up at Ovid’s house. With Nicomedes are an elderly couple and a boy called Gaius. Who is Gaius and why is he on the run? Suffice it to say that there are those who are very interested in the boy’s whereabouts, not necessarily in a friendly way.
It isn’t long before people start dying and suspicion turns on Ovid. Could he be the murderer? He certainly has a motive. He protests his innocence but can he prove it?
One of the great pleasures of the book is the development of the relationship between Ovid and his wife. When Fabia first turns up in Death and the Poet, Ovid views her arrival with some trepidation, while it’s fair to say she blames him for the inconvenience his exile has caused.
The emergence of a genuine affection between the couple is expertly handled and very moving. Far from dreading Fabia’s presence, Ovid treats her with respect and defers to her on more than one occasion. And it’s good to see Fabia, a wonderful creation, take a more central role in the story and the investigation.
But it’s not just Ovid and Fabia that Forsyth breathes life into. The whole cast of main characters are remarkably human and immediate, speaking to us across the centuries. It’s in the little observations, in the sayings (“you have enough on your wax tablet”), habits, beliefs and rituals that the past comes to life. I particularly enjoyed the lady Fabia’s fear of her slave Flora’s disapproval when she spills some ink.
Apart from the whodunnit that drives the story, there is another mystery hanging over Written in Blood. The question of why Ovid was exiled in the first place. I won’t give anything away except to say that the solution Fiona Forsyth comes up with is both convincing and shocking. It provides an ingenious ending to a deeply satisfying book. I can’t wait for my next trip to Tomis.
Reviewed by R.N. Morris
Written in Blood is published by Sharpe Books
Reviewer:
Cover Story by RN Morris is available from Sharpe Books