New author added: John Maddox Roberts

We've added John Maddox Roberts to our list of authors writing fiction set in the world of Ancient Rome. If you've never come across John's fiction before, he has written 15 novels in our favourite genre as well as many speculative fiction titles. Perhaps his most famous series follows Decius Metellus, a Roman investigator, about whom John has written 13 novels in the SPQR sequence. His other two novels in this genre are alternate histories in which Rome loses to Hannibal and his army - sounds intriguing!

1. The King's Gambit (SPQR series: book 1 of 13)

Blackmail, corruption, treachery, murder - the glory that was Rome.

In this Edgar Award-nominated mystery, John Maddox Roberts takes readers back to a Rome filled with violence and evil. Vicious gangs ruled the streets of Crassus and Pompey, routinely preying on plebeian and patrician alike, so the garroting of a lowly ex-slaved and the disembowelment of a foreign merchant in the dangerous Subura district seemed of little consequence to the Roman hierarchy. But Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger--highborn commander of the local vigiles--was determined to investigate. Despite official apathy, brazen bribes, and sinister threates, Decius uncovers a world of corruption at the highest levels of his government that threatens to destroy him and the government he serves.

Paperback: Latest edition: 2001 Publisher: Griffin ISBN: 978-0312277055 Pages: 288 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 8 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

2. The Catiline Conspiracy (SPQR series book 2 of 13)

It was a summer of glorious triumph for the mighty Roman Republic. Her invincible legions had brought all foreign enemies to their knees. But in Rome there was no peace. The streets were flooded with the blood of murdered citizens, and there were rumors of more atrocities to come. Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger was convinced a conspiracy existed to overthrow the government-a sinister cabal that could only be destroyed from within. But admission into the traitorous society of evil carried a grim price: the life of Decius's closest friend...and maybe his own.

Paperback: Latest edition: 2001 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 978-0312277062 Pages: 288 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 9 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

3. The Sacrilege (SPQR series book 3 of 13)

When a secret woman's rite in the ancient city of Rome is infiltrated by a corrupt patrician dressed in female garb, it falls to Senator Decuis Caecilius Metellus the Younger, whose investigative skills have proven indispensable in the past, to unmask the perpetrators. When four brutal slayings follow, Decius enlists the help a notorious and dangerous criminal. Together, they establish a connection between the sacrilege and the murders, and track the offenders from the lowest dregs of society to the prominent elite of the upper class, finding corruption and violence where Decius least expects it.

Paperback: Latest edition: 1999 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 978-0312246976 Pages: 264 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 45 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

4. The Temple of the Muses (SPQR series book 4 of 13)

When Roman junior senator Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger has a chance to join a diplomatic mission to Alexandria, he welcomes the opportunity to temporarily elude his enemies in the Eternal City-even though it means leaving his beloved Rome. Decius is just beginning to enjoy the outpost's many exotic pleasures when the suspicious death of an irascible philosopher occurs, coinciding with the puzzling and apocalyptic ravings of a charismatic cult leader. Intrigued, Decius requests and is given permission by the Egyptian Pharaoh to investigate the heinous crime. What he discovers is beyond shocking. And when the corpse of a famous courtesan mysteriously turns up in his bed, Decius suddenly finds himself entangled in a web of conspiracy far more widespread and dangerous than he ever imagined-one that threatens to bring about the downfall of the entire Empire.

Paperback: Latest edition: 1999 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 978-0312246983 Pages: 240 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 6 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

5. Saturnalia (SPQR series book 5 of 13)

Ancient Roman detective Decius Marcellus returns to solve a case of a woman accused of poisoning her powerful husband, a seemingly open-and-shut case that sounds simple, until obstacles that Decius never would have suspected begin to appear.

Hardcover: Latest edition: 1999 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312205829 Pages: 275 Availability & latest prices:

Paperback: Latest edition: 1999 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 978-0312205829 Pages: 275 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 12 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

6. Nobody Loves a Centurion (SPQR series book 6 of 13)

Like so many young men in later generations, Roman playboy/detective Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger is faced with the necessity of serving in his country's armed forces. Since a dangerous enemy has become powerful in the politics of Rome, Decius is just as well out of the city for a while. He sets out to join Caesar in Gaul, where the general has come and seen, but has as yet not been able to conquer.

The occupying Roman army is at a standstill when Decius shows up in full parade regalia (much to the amusement of the more informally uniformed veterans) and accompanied only by his young personal slave. Caesar sets him the task of discovering who murdered one of his centurions, a cruel and unfair officer feared and hated by every man of the one hundred soldiers under him. A further prod to Decius is that the main suspect is a youth whose father is a close friend of the Metellus family. With Caesar's decree that another killer be found in a matter of hours or the young man dies, Decius has his work cut out for him.

Hardcover: Latest edition: 2001 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312272579 Pages: 275 Availability & latest prices:

Paperback: Latest edition: 1999 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 978-0312205829 Pages: 275 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 2 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

7. The Tribune's Curse (SPQR series book 7 of 13)

Decius Caecilius Metellus is happy. The weather is beautiful and he is standing for office (literally; standing, in the Roman Forum soliciting votes) with a sure chance of winning. And Caesar's ongoing dreary war is far off in Gaul. Decius is confident that another war looming over Rome, instigated by one Crassus against the Parthians (for no reason but possible worldly gain), will be voted down in the Senate. But the vote does not stop Crassus.

On the day he and his troops set out from Rome, the Tribune Ateius Capitus, leader of the opposition, shrieks an ancient and terrible curse over the huge crowd assembled -- a curse that frightens not only the man in the street but the highest Romans. When Ateius is murdered soon after, Decius, solver of past mysteries, has the ugly task of finding the killer.

Paperback: Latest edition: 2004 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 978-0312304898 Pages: 264 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 16 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

8. The River God's Vengeance (SPQR series book 8 of 13)

He would rise up as savior of the State, but Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger already has a lot on his mind. In the year of his aedileship, Decius is expected to stage elaborate and expensive games out of his own pocket. Along with his duties of pleasing the crowds with the feats of gladiators and wild beasts, are the more practical, and commonly neglected, ones of maintaining the city and its laws.

It is these more mundane duties that call him to the scene of a recently built and more recently collapsed tenement building. Determined to punish the greedy parties who used cheap materials and caused the deaths of hundreds, Decius sets out to exact justice.

It is easier said than done, especially when bodies and evidence go missing, and his family pressures him to cease the investigation. As he seeks out the politicians, philosophers, and tradesmen of the day, it becomes clear that the collapse of the building was deliberate, and Decius could be going after some of the most powerful men in Rome.

Hardcover: Latest edition: 2004 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312323196 Pages: 488 Availability & latest prices:

Paperback: Latest edition: 2005 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312323202 Pages: 300 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 19 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

9. The Princess and the Pirates (SPQR series book 9 of 13)

His two years of aedileship over, Decius is ready for his next adventure. He would rather do anything than join the war with Caesar, so he and Hermes find themselves on a mission to rid the Mediterranean of pirates. They set off with shoddy ships and sailors to the island of Cyprus, where a young Cleopatra is staying. Between her impressive crew and the ex-pirate Ariston providing insider knowledge of that cutthroat occupation, Decius thinks he stands a good chance of bringing himself some glory.

That would be too simple though. The ruler of the island is murdered and Decius has a sacred duty to find and punish the guilty party. As he investigates world trade, the island history, and the new kind of piracy plaguing the waters, he is finding connections more menacing than he had ever imagined possible.

Hardcover: Latest edition: 2005 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312337230 Pages: 198 Availability & latest prices:

Paperback: Latest edition: 2006 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312337247 Pages: 208 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 27 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

10. Point of Law (SPQR series book 10 of 13)

Decius Caecilius Metellus is moving up in the world. He's won some money and glory fighting pirates in the Mediterranean and expects a speedy election to the office of praetor.

That all changes when a man he's never seen before publicly accuses him of corruption. Decius and his powerful family of Rome's leading politicians scramble to prepare a defense. However, the day of the trial they are greeted with a strange surprise on the steps of the courthouse: the corpse of the man who made the accusation. Now Decius is up against a much more serious charge of murder. It may cost him his chance to run for office, but not if he can help it.

Hardcover: Latest edition: 2006 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312337254 Pages: 253 Availability & latest prices:

Paperback: Latest edition: 2007 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312337261 Pages: 272 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 34 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

11. Under Vesuvius (SPQR series book 11 of 13)

Things are going well for Decius Caecilius Metellus. He is praetor peregrinus, which means he has to judge a case or two outside Rome. His first stop is Campania, Italy's most popular resort district. He and his wife, Julia, are happy for a change of scenery. But the good times end when, in a town near Vesuvius, a priest's daughter is murdered. Decius must find her killer and keep the mob off a young boy whom everyone blames but he believes to be innocent. Decius may have acquired more prestige, but he's also acquired more trouble.

Hardcover: Latest edition: 2007 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312370886 Pages: 224 Availability & latest prices:

Paperback: Latest edition: 2008 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312370893 Pages: 228 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 6hrs 35 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

12. Oracle of the Dead (SPQR series book 12 of 13)

Decius Caecilius Metellus, this year's magistrate for cases involving foreigners, thinks he is merely visiting one of the local attractions of southern Italy when he takes a party to visit the Oracle of the Dead, a pre-Roman cult site located at the end of a tunnel dug beneath a temple of Apollo. But there is a bitter rivalry between the priests of Apollo and those of Hecate, who guard the oracle, and when the priests are all killed, the countryside looks to explode in violence as Greeks, Romans, and native Italians of several conquered nations bring out old enmities.

Hardcover: Latest edition: 2008 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312380939 Pages: 230 Availability & latest prices:

Paperback: Latest edition: 2009 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312538958 Pages: 240 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 10 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

13. The Year of Confusion (SPQR series book 13 of 13)

Caius Julius Caesar, now dictator of Rome, has decided to revise the Roman calendar, which has become out of sync with the seasons. As if this weren't already an unpopular move, Caesar has brought in astronomers and astrologers from abroad, including Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, and Persians. Decius is appointed to oversee this project, which he knows rankles the Roman public: To be told by a pack of Chaldeans and Egyptians how to conduct their duties towards the gods was intolerable.

Not long after the new calendar project begins, two of the foreigners are murdered. Decius begins his investigations, and, as the body count increases, it seems that an Indian fortune-teller popular with patrician Roman ladies is also involved. Decius figures out the fortune-teller's scam and also exposes the foreign astrologer who carried out these murders--almost losing his life in the process.

Hardcover: Latest edition: 2010 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312595074 Pages: 277 Availability & latest prices:

Paperback: Latest edition: 2011 Publisher: Minotaur ISBN: 9780312596118 Pages: 211 Availability & latest prices:

Audiobook: Length: 7hrs 33 mins Narrator: John Lee Availability & latest prices:

14. Hannibal's Children

In a new alternate history saga, more than one hundred years after Rome falls to the great Carthaginian general Hannibal and its inhabitants are sent into exile, the Romans have re-grouped, stronger and more powerful than ever, and are primed for the ultimate battle for supremacy of the ancient world.

Hardcover: Latest edition: 2002 Publisher: Ace ISBN: 9780441009336 Pages: 360 Availability & latest prices:

Paperback: Latest edition: 2002 Publisher: Ace ISBN: 9780441010387 Pages: 359 Availability & latest prices:

Kindle: Publisher: Spectrum Availability & latest prices:

15. The Seven Hills

Sequel to Hannibals Children, this alternate history follows Marcus Scipio, a brilliant young Roman from one of the oldest patrician families, and Titus Norbanus, the ambitious son of a "new" Roman family from Gaul, whose skillfully-orchestrated battles are earning him fame and infamy -- depending whose side you're on -- in the Senate and among the Roman people.

Set over a hundred years after Hannibal defeated Rome in the Second Punic War, the exiled Romans have returned to Italy and retaken their beloved city of the seven hills. But Rome will never feel safe until Carthage is destroyed. While Norbanus, who fancies himself a new Alexander the Great, expands the Roman Empire and defeats enemies, young Scipio in Alexandria, with the backing of the Egyptian queen, invites "philosophers" with scientific and engineering skills to the Alexandrian Library's school to create new inventions, from submarines to telescopes to flying machines, that will transform warfare - and the world.

Hardcover: Latest edition: 2005 Publisher: Ace ISBN: 9780441012459 Pages: 359 Availability & latest prices:

Paperback: Latest edition: 2006 Publisher: Ace ISBN: 978-0441013807 Pages: 369 Availability & latest prices:

Kindle: Publisher: Spectrum Availability & latest prices:

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