“A riveting fast-paced mystery that sideswipes everything we thought we knew about Caesar’s assassination and the fall of the Roman Republic.” Jacquie Rogers, author of The Governor's Man

45 B.C.E. Rome is under a Dictator.
Caesar has won the final battle of a bloody Civil War, and Romans are ready for peace.

So, when Lucius Sestius Quirinalis, an aspiring lawyer, is called into his father’s study one autumn morning, he is thinking of nothing more than the family’s latest case.

The charge against the historian Sallust is his corrupt rule in Roman Africa. But it is his research into the twenty-year-old Catilinarian Conspiracy which is proving unsettling for some.

The Sestius family are alarmed when their friend Caecilius is killed in mistake for Lucius. Their involvement in the case has brought murder to their own house, and Lucius is in danger.

With the aid of Cornelius Rufus, an informant from the Subura slums, Lucius goes into hiding. His mistake is to travel to Hippo Regius where Sallust was governor.

With nowhere left to hide, Lucius risks a return to Rome and a confrontation with Caesar.

In the aftermath of the Ides of March, his questions will be answered.

Caesar, it seems, was not the only one to suffer a betrayal.

Recommended for fans of Steven Saylor, David Wishart and Peter Tonkin.

Fiona Forsyth studied Classics at Oxford before teaching the subject for 25 years. She lives in Qatar.

Praise for Fiona Forsyth:
"Forsyth weaves fact and fiction to produce a page-turning mystery and insight into the end of the Republic." Richard Foreman, author of the Sword of Rome series

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