Roma Sub Rosa series

A prequel to the best-selling Roma Sub Rosa series traces 18-year-old Gordianus's journey to the Seven Wonders of the World, each of which pose a mystery that challenges his budding powers of deduction and the tenacity of celebrated poet Antipater of Sidon, who fakes his death to accompany young Gordianus.

"The young Gordianus has been waiting out the chaos in Alexandria, with Bethesda, when he gets a cryptic message from his former tutor and friend, Antipater. Now in Ephesus, as part of Mithridates' entourage, Antipater seems to think that his life is in imminent danger. To rescue him, Gordianus concocts a daring, even foolhardy, scheme to go behind enemy lines and bring Antipater to safety. But there are powerful, and deadly forces, at work here,...

Nine crime stories featuring Gordianus the Finder, a detective in ancient Rome who marries his slave. Part mystery, part a social history of the period from the end of Sulla's dictatorship to the Spartacan slave revolt.

"The hideously disfigured body was found in the atrium. The only clues are a blood-soaked cloak, and, carved into the stone at the corpse's feet, the word Sparta. The murdered man was the overseer of Marcus Crassus's estate, apparently killed by two runaway slaves bent on joining Spartacus's revolt. In response to the murder, the wealthy, powerful Crassus vows to honor an ancient law and kill his ninety-nine remaining slaves in three days. Now Gordianus...

In 48 B.C., civil war rages across the Roman world. While Caesar and Pompey fight on distant battlefields, the powerful women left behind in Rome spin their own webs of intrigue and betrayal. When the beautiful young Cassandra staggers across the Roman Forum and dies in the arms of Gordianus the Finder, he becomes obsessed with finding her killer. Like her Trojan namesake, Cassandra was a seeress. To hear her prophecies, many paid handsomely. To silence...