Murder at the Colosseum

Museum Mysteries #11

by Jim Eldridge

Rome, 1900. Fifteen years ago, Abigail Wilson joined an archaeological dig at the Colosseum at the start of her career. She returns now to the Eternal City as a guest speaker for a festival on Classical Rome, including the site of legendary gladiator battles. Travelling with Abigail is her husband, Daniel Wilson, a private investigator with whom she has built up a reputation for solving complex cases. The trip is also meant to be a well-earned holiday, but the bloody history of the ancient arena seeps into the present with the violent murder of one of Abigail's colleagues and his wife at the Colosseum itself.


Moving from the Forum to the Spanish Steps, Rome is suddenly the backdrop of another investigation for the Museum Detectives, who must contend with the local authorities and a shady mafia influence if they are to crack this case.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Mystery, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

Published July 24, 2025

About the author

Jim Eldridge is the author of many books for children, including titles in the My Story series, the Warpath books, and How to Handle Grown-Ups. He has had 250 TV scripts broadcast in the UK and internationally for children's and teen television, and is also the creator and writer of Radio 4's long-running comedy-drama series, King Street Junior.

Reviews

[Kay Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book is competently written it seems the author wanted to share all he'd learned about the political and social context of the Bava Beccaris massacre aka Milan riots 1898 that arose over massive increases in the cost of food, especally bread. That and the rise of the Cosa Nostra.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bava_Be... for some history.

The "mystery" that Abigail and Daniel solve of the killing of a couple is both simple and farfetched. Who committed the crime was instantly obvious. Why, and the character development, not convincing. There were other aspects of the book that would be jarring for regular followers of the series, like going from Abigail and Daniel happily expecting a child in a previous book to aan off page miscarriage and warning to avoid pregnancies in future. Poorly handled.

DNF.