I am an author and translator specializing in historical topics. And now, cozy murder mysteries.
FORTUNA AT THE RUDDER
THE CURIOUS ADVENTURES OF GAIUS OBSEQUENS DOLO, TRIBUNE ON THE RHINE
How about a comic novel about the late Roman Empire? Instead of the usual chest-thumping, sword-slashing Roman legionary novel, here’s the wryly humorous story of Gaius Obsequens Dolo, once a mediocre a law student in Rome, now— because of his late father’s tax problems— a military tribune on the Rhine trying to prosper by means of institutionalized graft, administrative ineptitude and mutiny while the Empire totters around him. Used as the unwitting secret agent of a high government official, he blunders through a peasant insurrection, two civil wars, and three stints in jail, all the while pursuing an acrimonious lawsuit against his brother. He’s ably assisted by his faithful, if cynical, friend (and former slave) and his strong-willed wife, who, fortunately for him, is a human calculator. The book is larded with amusing footnotes, sly jabs at government inefficiency, episodes of military ineptitude, an ancient version of “where’s the missing dollar?”and amusing Latin sayings that, strangely, echo modern expressions. Here’s a completely different historical novel.
Available Soon from Catchall Books.
Plan 9 for Murder
by Erik and Elizabeth Hildinger
Professor Annie Sinclair is up for tenure in the English department of the Ohio college where she and her husband, music professor Charles Renaud, work. Too bad the department chair is more interested in pop culture than in literature and scholarship. Annie’s solution? Checkmate him by giving a talk about document authentication at a UFO convention. When she and Charles discover that a veteran Ufologist has been murdered after showing them a mysterious memo, Annie finds that it’s not only her tenure that’s in danger— she and Charles are, too! UFOs, burglary, the steady-state theory of the universe, and the fake Venice plunked down in the middle of Las Vegas. Sinister figures who want to silence ‘people who know too much.’ It’s all here. Will Annie prevail? And what about her tenure?