If you've been a front line publishing house for as long as the Threadbone Press, then the chances are you're pretty used to the brickbats that come your way every once in a while. If, in addition, you've been the publisher of choice for a raft of top line crime writers, then the likelihood is that charges of intellectual elitism and authorial impenetrability are your everyday bread and butter. So it comes as no surprise that the latest outing for Quintus Remus's Vinicius Pusilli has been greeted with the usual fusillade of ignorant remarks. "I don't understand half of it ... it's in Latin", is typical of the kind of remark that Series Editor and Threadbone Press Director Sally Whisky-Bravo, has had to endure.
"What some of our readers don't seem to grasp", she explained, "is that being set in Rome in the 1st century AD, the lingua franca [common tongue] of the period was Latin. Of course no one expects a modern crime readership to read or understand Latin in its entirety, but to add colour, authenticity and context to the stories, Quintus naturally uses some of the language and terminology of the time. Any intelligent reader can make a pretty good stab at the meaning and if they can't they can always look something up. It puzzles me that people who set themselves the challenge of solving a complex murder plot (and enjoy doing so) are so feeble when it comes to a little internet research". "That said, we want to be as helpful to readers as we can be, which is why we have negotiated a deal with The Threadbone Educational Trust" to fund an educational edition of the latest novel with notes and a commentary by eminent classicist Professor Trebor Murray-Minto", she added. "We are so proud of the results - at last a richly textured crime mystery which even the non-classically schooled can enjoy."
Child Okeford University's Regius Professor of Classics Professor Trebor Murray-Minto. "A fine brain but no dress sense" Child Okeford University Alternative Prospectus 2018
Time will tell whether the initiative proves a success. If it does then other titles may find themselves "amplified and explained" in the same manner. In the meantime those packing their bags and heading for the beaches of Europe have no excuses for not taking A Corpse in the Calderium with them. And if you still don't understand it, you can always use it as an eyeshade!
The special edition of A Corpse in the Caldarium is supported by a grant from the Threadbone Educational Trust and carries a commentary and study aid by Child Okeford University's Regius Professor of Classics Professor Trebor Murray-Minto. The Professor is keen to do whatever he can to promote the survival of Latin "even if it means endorsing this sort of crap".
Purchase from the orinoco store HERE
SPECIAL EDITION SPECIMEN CHAPTER HERE
ORIGINAL EDITION [FOR THOSE WHO THINK THEY CAN] HERE
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