The Thieves of Ostia.THE THIEVES OF OSTIA Ostia (ŏs`tēə), ancient city of Italy, at the mouth of the Tiber. It was founded (4th cent. B.C.) as a protection for Rome, then developed (from the 1st cent. B.C.) as a Roman port, rivaling Puteoli. . Caroline Lawrence. 2001/2004. Read by Kim Hicks. 4 tapes. 4 hrs. Listening Library. 0-8072-2341-7 $26.00. Cardboard; plot, author, reader notes. J Caroline Lawrence's first book is also the first in a series called The Roman Mysteries. Flavia Gemina is a young girl who lives in Ostia with her father, a sea captain who is away from home for weeks at a time, allowing her and her young friends to get into danger and solve mysteries. Flavia teams up with Jonathan, a Jewish boy from next door, whose father is a doctor. Flavia buys a young African slave girl named Nubia and takes in an orphaned beggar boy named Lupus lupus (l  `pəs), noninfectious chronic disease in which antibodies in an individual's immune system attack the body's own substances. , who cannot speak because someone has cut out his tongue. The four children are set upon by feral feraluntamed; often used in the sense of having escaped from domesticity and run wild. dogs and chased by slave traders. They try to discover who is killing and beheading the watchdogs on their street. The prime suspect is a father whose little girl died weeks earlier of hydrophobia hydrophobia: see rabies. . Young listeners will enjoy the characters, their adventures, and the themes of tolerance, friendship, and pluck. More sophisticated listeners will find the story predictable and the dues too obvious. This pleasant little story is politically correct politically correct Politically sensitive adjective Referring to language reflecting awareness and sensitivity to another person's physical, mental, cultural, or other disadvantages or deviations from a norm; a person is not mentally retarded, but and the characters are remarkably broadminded. In the end they all plan to go off to Pompeii during August in A.D. 79. Later mysteries will be set in Pompeii, Sorento, Capri, and Rome. A Web site, www.romanmysteries.com, gives more info about the books and the author, an American who took degrees in England in classical art and archaeology as well as Hebrew and Jewish studies and currently resides in London. Actress Kim Hicks, who has developed and performed in several critically acclaimed one-woman shows, gives this novel a professional full-voiced reading. Nubia has a shy foreign accent, Jonathan's father sounds old and wise, Caudex cau·dex n. pl. cau·di·ces or cau·dex·es 1. The thickened, usually underground base of the stem of many perennial herbaceous plants, from which new leaves and flowering stems arise. 2. the servant sounds old and sleepy, and the grieving father is mad with woe. Hicks moves this thrilling story along at a satisfying pace and makes Flavia a headstrong head·strong adj. 1. Determined to have one's own way; stubbornly and often recklessly willful. See Synonyms at obstinate, unruly. 2. Resulting from willfulness and obstinacy. but likable girl. Janet Julian, Grafton, MA |
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