The Thieves of Ostia

Caroline Lawrence (author)

Orion Children's Books, UK: 2001; 190pp

ISBN: 1842550209

Genres: adventure, crime, mystery

Issues: class, cultural differences, racism, social condition, religion

Set in the coastal town of Ostia, Rome, in the year 79 AD, this is the story of young Flavia Gemina, daughter of a well-regarded sea captain. Flavia's mother died several years earlier and she now regards it as her responsibility to look after her father.

When the precious amethyst signet-ring that he uses to seal his official documents disappears, Flavia sets about finding it. Solving this apparently simple problem introduces Flavia to three remarkable new friends - Nubia, the African slavegirl; Jonathan, the Jewish lad next door; and Lupus, a mute beggar boy. Flavia is glad of their enthusiastic and intelligent help, as life around her rapidly become more complicated. Who is killing the dogs of Ostia and what is their real purpose in doing so? Can the children get to the heart of the mystery without putting themselves in too much danger? Whom can they trust?

They narrative line has sufficient action to maintain the interest of inexperienced readers but some of the plot developments are a little awkward and artificial. In many ways the story has really been written as a vehicle to introduce readers to the day-to-day reality of Ancient Rome - social structure, architecture, and culture. Even the characters have been selected with this in mind as they represent the major groups in the population of the period. Despite the rather contrived context, the story is sufficiently entertaining to appeal to readers and may well serves as a bridge between non-fiction and fiction (or vice versa) for younger children. Later novels in the series may be less artificial.

This is an extremely successful series, nevertheless, and has been turned into an equally successful television series, seen on the ABC.

Warning: Several dogs are killed rather brutally as part of the story. Although the descriptions are brief and more focus is placed on how this distresses the child characters, sensitive readers may find these sections disturbing.

In Series: The Secrets of Vesuvius; The Pirates of Pompeii