Assaph MehrReviews

The world building is perfection, every aspect of the book drags you deeper into a roman-esk era. You can tell the author has a great appreciation for the time period, as if we put the story aside, that alone kept me interested.

Food was a huge part of this story, it was laced through all the interactions, in each place the character visited, and overall fascinating. It not only added to the era the author was engulfing us in, but gave us more insight to the characters. The characters had your typical roman names which all blended in my mind, but they had distinct personalities so I had no trouble keeping them apart.

Overall the story was long winded, and probably could have been shorter, but I personally think that was a nod to the time period as well. It's written as a memoir, not a fast pace mystery/thriller.

I also really enjoyed reading the notes in the back of the book about the authors research and how he adjusted things to fit his world.

This series is swoon worthy. The level of research that goes into each books is felt through the pages. If you love Roman even a little, you will enjoy reading this.

I love the authors attention to detail when it comes to the wording, foods, clothes, all the way down to religious and housing layouts. It's fully immersive, and I can't wait to read more in this series. Make sure to read all the deep dive information at the back of the book. I found it so fascinating to see how the author made choices, and took from history or strayed a bit for the sake of the story. Seriously fantastic.

In this instalment we get to know Felix on a much more personal level. Not sure if it's the nature of this particular case, or just that we're on book two. But his personality and capabilities really shine throughout the story. I loved that he is pragmatic but also a bit idealistic. I think it's what makes him a great sleuth.

The paranormal aspects of this story are also well done. I love how we're eased into it, with getting what the citizens witnessed first, then diving deeper into the spells and castors world as the story progresses. It never feels like I'm having to suspend my disbelief for it. More like practitioners could have actually orchestrated the events during this time period. I think that gives more nods to how well the world building is done.

I am horrible with keeping names straight in certain time periods but the characters are so well written, their personalities do a great job at helping me keep them straight.

You'll love this series if you enjoy Roman, Urban Fantasy, Mystery and characters with gray morals.

Delightful urban fantasy mystery in an ancient Roman setting½

I've now managed to read this after reading the first book in the series. While I still enjoyed the story and the premise, I thought it a bit weaker in execution. The real-world characters I found a bit jarring in a fantasy setting although it could almost be considered an alternate universe.

In this story, Felix meets up with Aemelia and her mother again, when Aemlia's uncle calls on Felix's services when 3 of his insulae start loosing tenants at an unhealthy rate. It turns out the tenements are being cursed rather comprehensively by a business rival.

The story is told in 3 parts - the investigation and breaking of the curse, the investigation and identification of who is responsible, and the court case against the ringleader.

Recommended.

I spotted this and the sequel in an Amazon Countdown Deal and snagged them both - I like fantasy, historical fantasy, and Roman detective stories and it looked fun. Boy, was I glad I grabbed them both at the knockdown price!

There's a shout-out to Lindsey Davis and Steven Saylor, but this is a fantasy world and the Rome-variant has been (to my mind) well thought-out. Basically, magic in this world works and the author has done a good job of thinking through the societal changes. Interestingly, one of the strictures involved is the major stricture in the Rome-variant home-brew RPG I play occasionally although the other aspects are more like the Rome we all know from our schooldays.

An enjoyable read that has left me wanting more (although whether I get time this weekend to actually sit and read is debateable).

This book has everything: a hard-boiled, plodding, and roguish detective, an intricate mystery, surprising plot twists, a gallery of intriguing, shady and sometimes hilarious characters, touches of horror, even a climactic sword and sorcery battle.

The setting, a fantasy world based on Ancient Rome, is portrayed with erudite detail. Want to know how the ancients worked magic? No problem. Want to know how they manufactured fish sauce? That's in here too.

Mehr knows his Ancient World like a scholar, and tells stories like Raymond Chandler, Lindsey Davis, and Jim Butcher rolled into one.

Euge! (Google tells me that's Latin for 'Bravo.')

Felix the Fox lives in a fantasy version of Rome called Egretia. It's basically ancient Rome with magic. Felix is an investigator who is called to find the background behind the death of a young man. His father is wealthy and wants to know the meaning of the tattoos on his body.
The world-building here is excellent, full of rich details of the world of Egretia and the surrounding cities and islands visited by Felix in pursuit of answers. That was one of my problems with this book; I have a pretty good background in Latin and ancient Rome, but at times I thought the details about the world overwhelmed the story. There's a lot of names and characters to keep track of and the characters are often referred to by different parts of their names or titles. I did find a glossary of terms at the end of the book, but a list of characters up front would have been nice to have. Readers of ebooks can find the list of people and terms in X-Ray, but again, I didn't think of that until the end of the book.
The mystery part of the story was okay, interesting in the execution as Felix tries different tactics to discover what happened to Caeso, the dead man. I didn't find the ending satisfactory; I wasn't sure where Felix came up with his conclusion, but I'm not sure it mattered that much.
There's a variety of interesting characters, all of whom are described well. The only one who isn't depicted is Felix himself. The book is told in first person, but I think a description of Felix could have been inserted in some way. I think he's middle-aged based on how he describes others as young or old, but aside from a few odd nuggets such as his short military and college careers, there's nothing about his appearance or background to flesh him out to the reader.
It's an interesting book and I would read more by this author. I give it 3 1/2 stars.½

Author's guest post at my blog:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2017/12/foodfic-please-welcome-assaph-mehr.html

I received this book from Read It & Reap giveaway in return for a honest review.

When I first started this book, I thought, "Oh, this is going to be good". Felix the Fox is a detective set in, Egretia; a place that resembles Historical Rome. He has been summoned to the home of an influential man to investigate the death of the man's son, Caeso. When Felix gets to the man's home he finds the young man marked with tattoos that would be consistent with a magical ritual. He does some tests and finds that it is indeed magic - his heart has been turned to a ruby.

At this point I lost interest for a bit, I think the author was trying to set the stage of us understanding this world of Egretia . . . but it could also be because I was finishing up with school for the summer and so was too distracted. It was because of this that I continued to read and as I read I became more interested in the story. I liked the setting which, while I thought was sometimes to descriptive, it was interesting. The setting description did not eclipse the mystery which pulled me in further as I read. The story ended in a classic mystery style when all the important characters come together and the detective explains who he figured out the "crime". The ending surprised me which I always enjoy. I look forward to reading more of Felix the Fox.

***This book was reviewed for Reader's Favourite***

Assaph Mehr’s delightful murder mystery Murder in absentia introduces us to one Felix the Fox, an investigator (or ‘fox’), living in Egretia, a place wholly reminiscent of ancient Rome. Felix has been hired by the Rhone of Fish, a man named Corpio, to look into the suspicious, magickally-wrought death of his son Caeso.

Felix’s investigations leads him to a secret cabal of magick users dealing in some pretty shady stuff. Further investigation takes him to Kebros, where Caeso spent time with his uncle, and met with a sibyl living on one of the more remote of the Kebric Isles. This meeting may very well have been what pushed Caeso along the path eventually leading to his horrific and painful death. Along the way, Felix gets attacked by pirates, meets the sibyl himself, has a brush with a deity-form on a lonely mountaintop, dines upon gryphon-flesh and finds new friends and enemies.

I liked Felix from the start, and really enjoyed the mystery. Felix seems a good investigator, one who can handle himself among upper society and lower both with equal ease. As an investigator, not only can Felix weave small magicks, but everything about how he investigates is different because of the culture and his place in it. He has different resources available than a modern detective does, magick notwithstanding. I found this story to be a nice blend of fantasy and mystery elements.

The pace of the story was fast, and kept my attention. All of the cast, from Felix to Zymaxis were interesting and engaging. The manuscript itself could benefit from a thorough proofreading for grammar and spelling errors which are scattered throughout, yet the story was enjoyable enough that very few jarred me from it. The biggest qualm I had was the subtitle which seems both goofy and unnecessary.

If you enjoy blends of fantasy and mystery, if you enjoy pseudo-historical fiction or historical mysteries, be sure to check out Mehr’s Murder in absentia. Set in a land/culture resembling Rome in all its glory and shame, a world with magick in it, Felix’s world is one well worth diving into. A world just a few planes over from ours, if you subscribe to theoretical physics multiverse theory. I do! I look forward to seeing Mehr grow as a writer, and the chance to walk the streets of Egretia again.