While the Emperor Slept

1st Century Rome.

Decimus Julius Virilis, is a toga-clad sleuth.

Part detective, part assassin.

Upon retiring from the army Decimus is given the rank of Tribune in Octavius Caesar's new Cohortes Urbana: a specialised police unit for the cities of Rome and Ostia.

Emperor Octavius personally assigns him to investigate delicate cases particularly sensitive to the ruling Julii familiy.

It’s not long before Decimus and his sidekick Quintus Flavius, finds themselves at the sharp end of a legionary’s short sword.

What are the secrets contained in a set of stolen scrolls that Octavius is so desperate to recover?

How are they linked to the death of a wealthy but secretive wealthy patrician Spurious Lavinus – a man Decimus suspects might be involved in a new assassination plot that could plunge the empire back into bloody civil war?

Why does suspicion fall on Spurious’ beautiful, siren-like wife Atia Graccia whose father Felix Graccius suddenly suffers a gruesome end?

What does the piratical sea captain Caius Septimus know of the scrolls that may, it is thought, contain plans for Julius Caesar’s murder 40 years earlier – and names, including that of the legendary Mark Antonius?

Can there be double agents afoot? And what part could Livia Drusilla – ageing wife of Octavius and mother of Caesar-to-be Tiberius – possibly play in such a dangerous game of dynastic survival?

Sherlock Holmes meets Jason Bourne in this 1st Century Roman Empire detective mystery and mayhem.

B R Stateham is the author of several detective stories, science fiction, fantasy and history. The first in the Decimus Julius Virilis series is Death by Greek Fire.