SPQR is a fun series (or at least the first book is fun) about a detective-equivalent in ancient Rome. John Maddox Roberts seems to know his history pretty well, even to the extent that one could probably place the exact year in which this book is set (13 years before Caesar's assassination, a couple of years before the Catiline conspiracy). It's also subject to the usual problems in these novels -- Decius Septimus, the protagonist, manages to run into most of the major historical figures of the period, as well as a few minor ones (so Julius Caesar appears in a walk-on, as do Cicero, Catiline, and Pompey. Claudis Pulcher and his sister have bigger roles, and so on). Also, Roberts occasionally likes to show off his research in pointless asides, like the one where he tells us about Cicero's secretary inventing shorthand. Moderately cool if you didn't already know, I suppose, but there's no reason to think that Decius the character would care about it.
Having made those complaints, I must say it was a fun novel, and I'd probably read another in the series.
I also finished Metamorphoses book 5. I think I'll take a break from that and switch over to the Aeneid for a while.
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