This is the series that started it all (for me). I always loved ancient Rome (since I first read Asterix), and detective stories. This was the perfect combination. I came across it almost by accident, picking up a battered copy of book 4 (Iron hand of Mars) at a used books stall. I then went […]
News / Blog
Breaking the International Author barrier
In another step towards international fame and fortune, I am proud to announce that Murder In Absentia is now available in Russian! Due to the tireless efforts of a Russian business partner, the novel has been translated, edited, and formatted to fit the Russian ebook market, with a language that should feel native to and […]
Book Review: The One, by Eric L Klein
It is with great pleasure that I got to read and review this debut novel. I had some input into it at an early draft, and I’m glad to see it evolve into a highly-polished book. In short, this is a near-future, solar-system adventure-story in the style of golden-age science fiction. It reminded me very […]
How Do You Get Paid?
I have the bestest fans. A dear soul has sent me an invaluable resource of Roman Republican coinage. Not actual coins, duh, but an online collection of images of Mid-to-Late Republic coins – Rutgers University Badian Collection. The collection covers roughly 280 to 31 BCE, and is comprised of about 1,200 coins. Each entry is detailed […]
Book Review: Memento Mori, by Ruth Downie
This is probably my most-favourite Roman-era mystery series. I have previously interviewed both protagonists and was proud to be a part of the global launch of Memento Mori (you can read the first chapter here on my blog). So the short version is: unsurprisingly, I enjoyed it very much. In fact, I enjoyed it so much […]
Brain-to-Books 2018!
This post appears as part of the “Brain to Books Cyber Convention & Book Expo Fantasy Book Tour”… Running from April 6th through April 8th 2018 this online book event brings readers and authors together for a weekend of books, and book related events. Learn more here G’day, Ave, and welcome 🙂 I am participating […]
Book Review: Grim, by Gavin McCallion
I guess the best way to summarise Grim would be “a cross between Gaiman and Trainspotting”. Yeah, it’s a bit of a mind-bender right there. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but the premise looked promising. I started to read – and just kept on reading. McCallion certainly makes it explicit from the get-go […]
Ancient Roman Sources and Science
Ancient Greeks and Romans had pretty advanced science – and we know quite a bit about it. The two pieces referenced today will expose you to both what we know and how we do. First an article about how we know what we know about Roman legions. This is extracted from Adrian Goldsworthy’s excellent The Complete […]
Book Review: Black City Demon, by Richard A. Knaak
Seems like I just can’t stay away from these noir-historical-fantasy-detective blends… This is the second book in the Black City series; I’ve reviewed the first one here. What to expect This book, while a separate adventure, continues straight from the previous one and builds up on the events therein. You can expect to learn more […]
How My Book Reviews Help Sales
I’ve been posting a lot of book reviews recently, so I thought I’d qualify my review scale and criteria. This should help those reading them judge whether my reviews align with their views enough to be considered a good recommendation. I’ll start with what my father taught me about wine appreciation, and is pretty much […]
