EMPEROR'S SPEAR

Gough deserves more recognition. The author of Roman historical novels including The Watchmen of Rome has a lifelong obsession with Ancient Rome and his novels are the culmination of much research into the underclasses of the time. The series is based around two close friends, Silus and Atius, much like Simon Scarrow's Cato and Macro novels. This is an intense novel of war at the Roman frontier. On the Empire's Northern border, trouble is stirring. For decades the barbarians have been at the gates and now, facing threats from within as well as outside, the Emperor is provoking war. When his friend Atius goes missing in Germania, Imperial Assassin Silus is sent into the heart of the battle-torn region. Plunged into a deadly intrigue and a brutal conflict, can he find out who is betraying Rome, or will the legions start falling, one by bloody one? 328pp, paperback.