His father nags him to grow up and take a more active role in the only game in town: politics.

His mother nags him to grow up and take a wife.

What's a boy to do? Incidently, Decius is no boy, he reads as if he's closing in on 30. Pretty ancient for Ancient Rome. What Decius does is enjoy the good life offered by the greatest city in the world at that time. The trouble is that he's always stepping into a murder and being asked to solve it.

His travels have taken him to some of the more interesting spots in the Empire. In one short story not in the novels below, Decius gets involved with a death amidst the ruins of the Colossus of Rhodes.

The SPQR novels are not as technically hard-boiled as say, something by James M. Cain. They focus more on the political intrigue that permiated the Roman Empire in the confused time between the decline of the Republic and the rise of the Caesars.

In on interesting instance, Maddox stages a "car chase" through the lybrintian streets of Roman with Decius on foot, carrying a horse's head. No, he isn't going to put it in someone's bed. That's for them Sicilians.