Murder in Rome

Cicero the future Consul of Rome is just starting out as a trial lawyer in crimeridden Rome where assassinations for political advantage and for estate grabbing had become de rigueur The matriarch of a prominent family hires him to defend a relative on a charge of patricide He faces one of the shrewdest criminal trial prosecutors in the Republic who is backed by powerful political forces with motives to see that his client is convicted and executed in one of the most horrible manners possible