Meet Assaph
Assaph has had his nose in a book since he was five and had to yell at the librarian that he can read already so he should get his own card. With a rather diverse taste in reading – from fantasy to philosophy, from ancient times to the far future – his first novel Murder In Absentia is an “historically-themed urban high-fantasy hardboiled murder mystery, with just a dash of horror”.
After years of reading and only dreaming of seeing his name in print, he suddenly started writing in 2015. He owes this to his wife, who complained that there was nothing good left to read. Once the challenge was accepted and Murder In Absentia was born, Assaph just kept on writing – short stories, flash fiction, and now a second full length novel.
When he’s not busy mashing up genres or interviewing other authors’ characters on TheProtagonistSpeaks.com, this ex-Israeli-turned-Aussie enjoys – in no particular order – his wife, kids, cats, dog, and even his day job. He hopes that his thirty years of martial arts make his fight scenes realistic, and that his love of history shines through his work.
Have a question for Assaph? Want to tell him how lovely his novels are? Scroll down to the Contact form below 👇
Stories of Togas, Daggers, and Magic
Togas, Daggers, and Magic is Assaph’s first series, after which this site is named. It tells about the adventures of a paranormal detective solving occult crimes in a world that borrows heavily on Ancient Rome.
Meet Felix
Felix, with his colourful past, finds himself running errands and solving mysteries for all those upright citizens who would rather keep appearing as such – and not expose their shady dealings to prying official eyes.
He knows a bit about this and something about that, stuff that is on the borders of legality; but mostly he knows how to make problems go away. Discreetly.
In his own words,
I forged my own path as a Fox, though often a ferret would have been a more accurate name. Purloined jewellery, missing persons, cheating spouses are what paid for my bread and fish sauce. The occasional debunking of charlatans, confirmation of ancient scrolls, and even, rarely, a real magical ring are what would one day fill my memoirs. But this? Definitely out of my way. If I should live to see the end of this, it would make the shining pinnacle of light in my memoirs. Who knows, perhaps I could even sell them!
Felix has taken a life of his own, and has been giving interviews. First was the one on The Protagonist Speaks. Recently, Felix and Assaph have given a joint interview! This one has to be read to be believed.
Visit Egretia
The city of Egretia borrows elements from a thousand years of ancient Roman culture, from the founding of Rome to the late empire, mixed with a judicious amount of magic. Expect meticulously researched and exquisitely detailed accounts of daily life (from fish sauce to naval tactics) combined with the ultimate “what if” – how would Ancient Rome be like, if magic was real?
While daily and political life is decidedly Roman, some aspects are Alexandrian (the Pharos lighthouse, and the museon-like Collegium Incantatorum), and others Carthaginian (the love of maritime culture).
As one reader said about In Numina:
Once I started, I couldn’t put it down. Knew it’d happen, so waited till I had time. Once finished I suffered from serious ‘book hangover’ – you know, when part of you is still in the book’s world and yearns to go back. See what you’ve done?
Or as Harry Turtledove, SciFi grandmaster of Alternate History, has noted in his introduction to In Victrix:
Assaph Mehr’s Egretia is Rome as the Romans themselves imagined it to be. Magic really works. Curses curse, love philtres create love, oracles do predict the future, and on and on. The genuine Romans enacted laws against magic not because they thought it was a fraud but because they thought it wasn’t, and feared what it would do if widely practiced.
Unusual Crimes Squad
Meet Detective Inspector Jacob “Jack” Finkel, of the Unusual Crimes Squad. Set in modern day Australia (Sydney for the short stories about his early career, Tasmania for the novels), Jack works for the police solving all sorts of odd crimes that involve the supernatural elements of society.
It’s not as glamorous as you might think. The metamundane — those things outside the normal human experience — are rather commonplace. In Jack’s words:
It encompasses anything beyond the normal wont of physical human life. That encompasses spirits, tethered realms, visiting creatures from those realms, and the rare “spell.” People expect wizards who can affect great deeds by manipulating magical energies, but it doesn’t quite work this way. Though the aethereal spectrum is different than say the electromagnetic, it’s still subject to the conservation of energy law. Between this and the fact that it can’t be automated and takes years to master, most people are concerned more with practical technology than magic. My PhD in metamundane studies has as much career prospects as art history. That’s how I ended up working for the Australian Police — people being what they are, if it exists someone will try to use it to exploit others. That’s when I come in — there are enough ghosts, artefacts, magical beings, and wannabe witches to keep me busy.
Assaph publishes short stories with Jack in his quarterly newsletter, while working on the first full length novel.
All these stories have been written and will be published quarterly. Images link to them as they are published on this site (hover over, or go to the Short Stories page)
More of these stories have already appeared on the mailing list 😉
Hurry up and subscribe, so you don’t miss out!
Looking to contact either Assaph, Felix, or Jack?
Want more?
Follow the site (bottom-right) for fortnightly ramblings, or join the mailing list for quarterly updates with major news, and receive novellas and short stories for free!
FELIX THE FOX MYSTERIES 