The Ancient Ocean Blues is a sequel to Jack Mitchell’s The Roman Conspiracy; it can stand alone, but part of the fun of reading it lies in the many references to the earlier book – which is literally incorporated in this narrative, both as a soon-to-be-published book and as a play.  The narrator of The Ancient Roman Blues is a young Roman named Marcus Oppius Sabinus, whose cousin Gaius (“the greatest briber in the city”) works for Julius Caesar. Gaius sends Marcus on a voyage to Athens to thwart a mission entrusted by Cicero to none other than Aulus Lucinus Spurinna, hero of The Roman Conspiracy.  

Marcus finds himself traveling on board a merchant ship with an amiable Carthaginian captain. He is accompanied by Homer (a freedman and a publisher), whom we met in The Roman Conspiracy, and a lively Roman girl named Paulla who is a passionate reader of Greek romance novels. The setting of this book is historical, as are some of the secondary characters, but the narrative that unfolds owes more to the romance novel tradition than to history: we encounter shipwrecks, pirates, captivity and slavery, disguise, performance, trickery, love, heroism, a long-lost child, and an unknown island. Mitchell manages to keep all of this going in an amusing and well-plotted story. – Deborah Roberts