Donata et Secretum Malum

Donata enjoys her life in Rome. She loves her family, and they love her too. Even her older brother, Maximus, is (usually) part of the fun.

Donata’s two closest companions are her pet snake, Salvius, and her best friend, Helena, a household slave from Greece.

Life is good for Donata…until one day something terrible happens in her home.

Now she must find the truth before fear and suspicion destroy her world.

This murder mystery uses sheltered vocabulary to bring readers into the domestic world of an upper-middle class Roman family, including the basic layout of a Roman house and the realities faced by enslaved women.