Ancient Mystery Fiction

Despite his situation, Paaten believes his future is not in the enemy land of Hatti. As Paaten struggles to find his way back to his homeland of Egypt, he finds himself in an unforeseen battle, waging the biggest war yet: that of his heart. Will Paaten's perceived enemy ensnare his love and loyalty, or will he return to Egypt to fulfill his destiny and oath to pharaoh?

Un Aníbal ya maduro supera los recelos de sus enemigos en el Senado de Cartago y se prepara para derrotar por fin a Roma. Para ello, se apodera de gran parte de Isphanya (península Ibérica en lengua púnica) y hace suyas las riquezas y el espíritu de sus guerreros. Durante esas campañas militares adiestra a su ejército y lo convierte en una máquina de combate homogénea a pesar de estar formado por decenas de etnias distintas y mercenarios.

Rom, 95 nach Christus: Durch Zufall gerät der reiche Bürger Decimus Junius Juvenalis an die Leiche eines Unbekannten. Bei der Suche nach dem Mörder findet Decimus sich plötzlich im Netz der Intrigen des tyrannischen Kaisers Domitian wieder. Auf seiner Flucht vor den Schergen des Kaisers taucht er in die Unterwelt Roms ein, flieht bis nach Pompeji und endet schließlich in der schroffen Felswüste Qumrans, beim toten Meer. Dort findet er in der Bibliothek der Essener uralte Papyrusrollen, die ein großes Geheimnis bergen.

Caesar and Brutus. Marius and Sulla. Cicero, Antony, Clodius, and Augustus. The end of the Roman Republic gave us a host of larger-than-life characters hailing from Rome. Only one was named Great. In the year 90 B.C.E., chaos and unrest erupts across the Italian peninsula. Rome's allies have rebelled and taken up arms against the most powerful military on Earth. Leading Rome's legions - and his only son - to the city's defense, an unproven and unloved commander will taste victory and defeat outside the capital's gates.

Britannia, anno 305 dopo Cristo. È un autunno ventoso quello che accoglie Elio Sparziano ai piedi del Vallo di Adriano, l'ultimo sistema di difesa dell'impero romano contro le tribù della Scozia. L'incarico di Elio - ottimo soldato ma spirito libero - ha il sapore di un castigo per la sua indipendenza, giacché dovrà solo ispezionare i forti del Vallo; un lavoro più da burocrate che da uomo d'azione. Eppure la sua missione si complica di colpo alla notizia di una strage: un gruppo di barbari ha infatti trucidato un'intera guarnigione.

Elio Sparziano, ufficiale e storico, viene inviato da Diocleziano in Egitto per vigilare sul rispetto degli editti imperiali e per raccogliere informazioni utili a scrivere una biografia dell'imperatore Adriano, morto da quasi duecento anni. La sua indagine assume però contorni inediti, ed estremamente attuali, quando viene a sapere che le prove di una cospirazione ai danni di Roma si celerebbero nel leggendario sepolcro di Antinoo, il favorito di Adriano annegato nel Nilo giovanissimo in circostanze mai chiarite (incidente? Omicidio? Rito sacrificale?).

AD 173. The Danube lies frozen. On its banks gather the clans of Sarmatia, their riders winter starved by sickly herds and blighted crops. Petty feuds cast aside and their disparate numbers united in the face of a great enemy. For across the frozen waters stands the mighty Roman Empire, and its Legion marches ever closer.

Ehli-nikkalu, eldest daughter of the Hittite emperor, is married to a mere vassal of her father's. But despite her status, her foreignness and inability to produce an heir drive a wedge between her and the court that surrounds her. When her secretary is mysteriously murdered while carrying the emperor a message that would indict the loyalty of his vassal, Ehli-nikkalu adopts the dead man's orphaned children out of a guilty sense of responsibility.

When Akhenaten finally goes too far and meets his bloody fate, the court of Egypt is plunged into chaos. The royal family's most ambitious players are locked in a contest for the throne that can only end in victory for one...and death for the others. Nefertiti returns from her exile, wielding more than just her wits. She has Tutankhamun, Egypt's rightful heir. Smenkhkare's idealism makes him popular with the common people, but will his sense of justice and maat protect him from the vicious politics of his relatives?

Nell Valenti is settling into her role of transforming the Villa Orlandini into a superb farm-to-table cooking school, and the time has finally come for a full taste test run. But when Chef Orlandini prepares to reveal his top secret marinara recipe for the first time to a group of American gastro-tourists, Nell realizes she might have bitten off more than she can chew.

In a city where belief means everything, putting your faith in the wrong person can get you killed. Two Arkana agents are sent to Jerusalem on a standard artifact retrieval mission. What could possibly go wrong? Absolutely everything.

It’s festival time in Athens, and Philocles is looking forward to the holiday. Visitors are coming from across the Hellenic world for eight days of sporting competitions, musical contests and sacred rites to honour Athena, the city’s patron goddess. Thousands will flock to the Pnyx to be enthralled by three-day performance of Homer’s Iliad, an entertainment unique to the Great Panathenaia. Taking part is the highest honour and greatest challenge for an epic poet.

Bringing ancient myth to life with passion, humour and humanity, Lindsay Clarke vividly retells the story of Troy and of the heroes who fought there in the third instalment of the Troy Quartet. Troy has fallen. After 10 years of fighting and a savage final massacre, the victors quarrel over what remains and turn their minds to home. Menelaus must decide the fate of Helen, whose incomparable beauty ignited the war. And Agamemnon must return to the fury of Clytaemnestra, who has neither forgotten nor forgiven his choice to sacrifice their daughter.

In the dark of night, a covert group of bandits enters the village of Rekeem and kidnaps Rasha, daughter of the great Abdali-ud-din leader, Zafir. They seek a hefty ransom, and know Zafir will sacrifice everything to win back the safety of his beloved daughter. But it's not just Zafir who wants to find her. Bassam, Zafir's young protégé in the caravans, is deeply in love with Rasha. And he will let nothing stop him from finding her - even a perilous journey - even death.

La vida de los jóvenes atenienses es dura: viven una existencia de semiesclavitud que se reparte entre trabajar para los adultos y prepararse para los Juegos de la Guerra. Esta competición a muerte fue ideada tiempo atrás por los Consejos de Ancianos de Atenas y Esparta como sustituto de la guerra entre adultos. Quien gana los juegos tiene derecho a imponer sus costumbres a su rival. El problema es que los espartanos llevan diez años seguidos ganando los juegos, y un legado ateniense, enviado a Esparta para investigar la cuestión, desaparece sin dejar rastro.

Elle Newmark's richly seductive prose brings to life the color and scandal of 15th-century Venice. Through Luciano, a street urchin apprenticed to a great chef in the palace of the doge, Newmark tells a wicked tale of political and papal intrigue. In Venice where every whisper is a secret or a lie, Luciano's initiation into the chef's spicy world makes for deliciously suspenseful listening.

Before Julius Caesar ruled Rome, his uncle Gaius Marius was the most powerful man in the eternal city. Once a provincial nobody with a ruined family, Marius only had one way to power: the sword. Years later, he writes to his protege Quintus Sertorius, explaining to him how he rose through the ranks of the Roman legion to become the most powerful man in the Republic. He wants to encourage and inspire the young man but gets lost in the retelling of his first experience of war, love, and killing.

Returning to Rome from a forced sabbatical, a newly appointed Jesuit cardinal discovers a dark force that has ruled a single family for over 700 years has been unleashed against the world. With the clock ticking, he joins with a dedicated group of Israeli and Spanish scientists who are thrust into an endgame scenario as they race across the globe in an effort to stop the greatest threat mankind has ever faced, only to discover that they may already be too late.

Vita longs to write plays and poetry - but as a high-born girl in Roman Londinium, her fate is sealed: marriage and children. Then her father is murdered, her mother and brother disappear, and Vita flees from a shadowy enemy. Disguised as a slave at the gladiators' arena, she forges an unlikely bond with Brea, a native Briton gladiatrix - and her wolf. Together, they resolve to discover and bring the killer to justice before Vita's identity is revealed.

In 49 BC, in the city of Massilia (modern-day Marseille), on the coast of southern Gaul, Gordianus the Finder's beloved son Meto has disappeared - branded as a traitor to Caesar and apparently dead. Consumed with grief, Gordianus arrives in the city amid a raging civil war, hoping to discover what happened to his son. But when he witnesses a young woman fall from a precipice called Sacrifice Rock, he becomes entangled in discovering the truth.