Francis Mulhern

As a 'very' part-time author I took a step back and decided to review all of my original books and have since purchased Pro-WritingAid to help with Grammar and check other issues such as readability and sentence structure. As of July 2025 I have used this system to rewrite Books 1 & 2 of the Secundus Series and will continue with all of the books over the coming months. I was quite shocked at the number of issues that were found, but it has been extremely helpful to me to review my writing style.

Update on Book 8 The Case of Vesta; Will a triple murder and a plot so intertwined with the highest office in Rome defeat Secundus? When a local committee member is murdered on Secundus' doorstep his team of Graccus, Numa and Micus must step up to find the killer (or killers).

This book has been at c.50,000 words for 6 months as we have moved house and also I have focused my time on reviewing Books 1 & 2.

The Secundus series of books are set at the time of the 12 tables in about 430BCE when there were few laws and that which there were had a habit of being changed by the acts of murder and judgements that they brought. The theme for the series is Roman Gods, so each book is named after a god, whose temple or followers are central to the murder that has been committed. These are fictional stories and I have 12 books planned for the series. If you know your history you will understand that Romans followed many gods and bargained for a better life by sacrificing and 'betting' on outcomes with offerings that they believed would keep the gods happy. My central character, Secundus, is trying his best to find out which god will support his desire to have as easy a life as possible and avoid becoming a copy of his father, who is a priest in the largest temple of Rome, the Temple of Jupiter Greatest and Best.

My first series of books, 'Camillus - Dictator of Rome' have recently increased sales (which is why I can just about afford to pay an editor) was born from my passion for all things Roman History and a desire to tell the story of a man who was the Julius Caesar of his day and 6 times dictator of Rome. From his energetic sacking of the city of Veii to his banishment from the City and triumphant return it is a story which had been missing from the history books and deserved telling. I loved researching the history and filling the gaps with my imagination.

I have also designed a new series of Medieval England books based around the Peasants revolt of 1381 which will be following later in 2026, and I have been developing a story around the life of Augustus which will likely be 2027's addition to the portfolio.

I don't market my books beyond a few Facebook or Instagram posts as I'm a busy 60 hours a week worker who tries to write in his spare time (you can follow me as franmulhern1 on Instagram should you wish to but you'll get my boring cycling, holiday and dog-walks photo's too). Get in touch, tell me what you think of my books so I can make them better. You can follow me here and I will post updates more regularly.

ALSO and only because I've had a few comments, I am not the same Francis Mulhern who writes the political books on Marxism and Culture - I'm far too thick for that sort of clever stuff!!

Thanks all