We are delighted to announce that we have signed three new instalments in The Lion and the Eagle Roman Thrillers series by Alistair Tosh: action-packed military adventures set during the early Roman Empire.
Here, Alistair tells us what to expect from the latest instalments:
“I am delighted to be working with Sapere Books again on three more books in The Lion and the Eagle Roman Thrillers. As a publisher Sapere has provided me with excellent editorial, artistic and marketing support so that together we can bring these adventures to life in a way that I hope readers will enjoy.
“Set against the backdrop of the closing years of the Second Punic War, the series will continue to intertwine historical events with the personal journeys of the protagonists — Masinissa, Juba and Rufus Laelius — whose courage, loyalty and sacrifice leads them towards the decisive African campaign and the final, fateful battle at Zama between the Roman army commanded by Scipio and Hannibal’s Carthaginian army, which will ultimately determine the future of the Mediterranean world.”
The Sons of Carthage and A War of Brothers are available from Amazon now.
From naval adventures and military thrillers to the biography of an aviation legend, there’s something exciting here for everyone. Scroll down to discover this month’s titles from your favourite Sapere authors.
August’s Fiction Releases
Silver’s Phoney War by Carlo Gibbs is the first book in the Oscar Silver WWII Naval Adventures series. With Britain’s war effort gathering pace, young Oscar Silver has received his conscription orders. But while Oscar tries his best to get to grips with life in the Navy, the enemy is lurking just around the corner…
In Harm’s Way by William H Keith is the seventh book in the SEALS: The Warrior Breed series: action-packed military adventures following the U.S. Navy’s elite commando demolition unit. The unit are tested as never before — on a daring rescue in a desert land that’s ready to explode…
Expanding Crisis by Eric Helm is the third book in the Global War Military Thriller series. The global threat is heating up in this alternative-history military adventure set in the late twentieth century.
Indomitable by Jonathan Eyers is the second book in the Newt Beresford Naval Adventures series: Age of Sail historical adventures set in the 18th century. Will British naval officer Newt Beresford manage to prove his worth in the most decisive battle of the American Revolutionary War?
Die for the Queen by Douglas Scott is a wartime naval thriller full of military action and adventure. As the world’s biggest ship begins her maiden voyage, it should be a famous day for Britain, but the occasion is marred by a smokescreen of secrecy, bluff and counterbluff. Out of a background of peacetime intrigues, conflicting loyalties and star-crossed romance, a story of compelling power emerges — which surges to a nail-biting climax as the Queen Elizabeth slips from the Clyde and heads to the open sea…
The Sons of Carthage by Alistair Tosh is the first book in the Lion and the Eagle Roman Thrillers series: military adventures set in Ancient Rome. Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca leads his formidable army across the treacherous Alps, intent on striking at the heart of Rome itself. But as the armies of Carthage and Rome clash for control of Iberia, only one can emerge victorious…
Legacy of Steel by C.F. Dunn is the fourth book in The Tarnished Crown series: Wars of the Roses historical fiction set in Medieval Europe. Isobel Langton’s husband, Robert, has returned from North Africa, but he is not the man who left almost a year before. His exploits at sea defeating Barbary pirates are hailed as a great victory, but they have left him unpredictable and withdrawn. While Isobel struggles to preserve her marriage, King Edward fights for his reputation. Will Isobel lose her husband forever? And can she find a way to prove her family’s loyalty to the Crown…?
The Count’s Charade by Elizabeth Bailey is a heart-pounding love story set in Georgian England. Grace Dovercourt never thought she’d ever fall in love. But her settled life is turned upside down when she discovers a fugitive hiding in one of her outbuildings — and at death’s door. Will she risk all to keep him alive? And can she trust him with her heart?
August’s Fiction Backlist Releases
We are pleased to announce that two new action-packed submarine adventures by Gilbert Hackforth-Jones are out now!
Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Charles Compton is recalled to take command of H.M. Submarine N27. Compton is thrown straight into the deep end and must use every ounce of his ingenuity and energy to survive.
HMS Steadfast is patrolling for enemy raiders. The weather worsens. It becomes impossible to distinguish friend from foe, but destroying an enemy vessel could change the course of the war…
August’s Audio Releases
Lose yourself in a great audiobook this month!
The battle-hardened Legion of the Damned return in this Roman military adventure in Forests of Death by Jeff Jones.
Discover an engrossing biography of one of the greatest rulers of the medieval period in The Emperor Charlemagne by E. R. Chamberlin.
Thief turned espionage agent Gwynnie Wightham is tasked with hunting down a spy in the Tudor court in Death at the Tower by Adele Jordan.
Don’t miss the moving World War Two memoir that uncovers a forgotten naval catastrophe in Arctic Rescue by Ronald Healiss.
August’s Non-Fiction Releases
Target Eisenhower by Charles Whiting sheds new light on the hidden story of military and political assassination during World War Two. Whiting exposes this clandestine conflict, revealing the operations, agents, and motives behind both Allied and Axis assassination attempts which, had they succeeded, could have changed the direction of the entire war.
Odysseys and Oddities: Maritime Memoirs of a Seafaring Captain by Frank H. Shaw recounts his extraordinary career in the Merchant Navy and his service as a captain during the First World War. With warmth and humour, he recalls the curious characters he sailed with, the hardships and pleasures of life afloat, and the remarkable adventures he experienced both at sea and ashore.
Mosquito at War by renowned aviation historian Chaz Bowyer charts the story of the RAF’s most versatile aircraft in World War Two, from conception through every theatre in which it served, from Britain to Burma, revealing why this much-loved aeroplane proved uniquely suited to such a wide range of wartime roles.
Wales: A History by Wynford Vaughan-Thomas is the perfect read for anyone interested in the development of the Welsh nation, from the arrival of the Celts, the Saxon invasions and the Norman Conquest, through the age of the Princes, the forced union with England and the rule of English monarchs, to the rise of Methodism, the Industrial Revolution and the devastation of the two world wars. This is an essential introduction to a remarkable nation’s story.
John ‘Cat’s-Eyes’ Cunningham: The Aviation Legend by John Golley tells the extraordinary life of one of Britain’s greatest aviators. Golley’s biography follows John Cunningham’s remarkable career from pre-war training to wartime combat, and into the high-risk world of post-war test flying. It is the portrait of a pioneering aviator at the forefront of aviation’s most dramatic advances.
Happy Reading! Team Sapere
Vibrant Voices. Sensational Stories. Beautiful Books.
Jacquie Rogers is the author of the Quintus Valerius Roman Mysteries.
In about AD 224, 9,262 silver denarius coins were neatly wrapped, stacked in leather bags, and carefully stored under the floor of a courtyard villa at Shapwick in the low Polden Hills of Somerset. It was the largest and most valuable silver hoard so far uncovered across the Roman Empire (equivalent to over £250,000 today). The villa was demolished almost immediately, though more modest dwellings on the same site were built and inhabited for many more decades. Archaeologists believe the deposition of the hoard and the demolition were closely related events (Aston and Gerrard, 2013).
Coins from the Shapwick Hoard on display at the Museum of Somerset
Nearly 1,800 years later I moved to the Somerset Levels, living between the Mendips to the north and the Poldens to the south. Being a lifelong Romanophile, I had already seen Roman lead ingots from the silver/lead mines of the Mendips, in the British Museum. At least one such ingot has been found by modern assays to be fraudulently stamped, declaring the native silver in the lead removed. The failure to remove silver and send it to the imperial coffers, as obligated by Roman law, was treason. It wasn’t a far step to ponder the links between fraud at the nearby Cheddar mines, a massive hidden hoard of silver coins (some of which were counterfeit, by the way), and the simultaneous demolition of Shapwick villa, leaving the hoard unrecovered.
Like any keen reader of historical fiction, I wondered if this story was already out in the world. Apart from Lindsey Davis’s excellent Falco novel, The Silver Pigs (set long before the hoard was deposited), it was an untold story. So I decided to write it myself.
At that time, I was between jobs as a university lecturer. Not that I taught any particularly relevant subject at university. Apart from A Level Ancient History, I am self-taught with regard to Roman history. But I was partway through an Open University diploma in creative writing, and used the Shapwick story to develop my end-of-course short story assignment. My tutor (author Jane Elmor) suggested that my short story would do better as a novel. But then I resumed work at the University of the West of England in Bristol, and the novel idea went on the back burner. Even when I had more free time to write, I resisted the concept of a novel. It was too scary. The length envisaged (around 90,000 words) was even longer than my doctoral thesis, and I’d sweated enough over that! Besides, I’d already begun a science fiction novella. That was completed, and is now rightly languishing in the fabled bottom drawer all writers have.
But the story wouldn’t go away. It turned into an account of theft, arson, murder and rebellion. Eventually I developed an outline and some opening chapters, which I took to an independent editor friend for developmental advice. ‘It’s got promise,’ she told me. ‘But not as the coming-of-age YA book you’ve outlined.’
I was taken aback. ‘What do you mean?’ I asked, thinking wistfully of the many hours that had gone into the book already.
‘You’ve got a mystery here, a full-blooded one,’ she said. ‘And these characters here —’ she said dismissively of my two main characters — ‘they’re not the ones you’re keen on. It’s this scarred army officer, and that thirty-something woman, Julia, who really interest you, isn’t it?’
Of course, she was right. Quintus Valerius, detached from the Praetorian Guard in Rome and sent back to Britannia to investigate the emperor’s missing silver, and his lost Romano-British love, Julia Aureliana, were very close to my heart. Once I’d understood that, the book flowed out. The Governor’s Man is the result, and will be followed by three more Quintus Valerius mysteries, set variously across Britannia, Rome, Gaul, York, Caledonia and Aquae Sulis (Bath). A high-stakes mission to Tara of the High Kings in Ireland will follow and along the way, Quintus will join forces with a Londinium-born-and-bred subaltern, Tiro, who mostly enjoys the wealth of adventure offered to a Roman military investigator, but remains convinced that Londinium is the greatest city in the world.
Reference
Aston, M. and Gerrard, G. (2013) Interpreting the English village: Landscape and Community at Shapwick, Somerset. Windgather Press, Oxford.
The Governor’s Man is available to pre-order from Amazon now.
Jacquie’s Substack newsletter, YouTube channel, magazine articles and social media can all be accessed via Linktree.
Image credit: The image of the Shapwick Hoard is from Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
We are delighted to announce that we have signed an exciting new series of Roman mysteries by Jacquie Rogers.
In Jacquie’s words:
“The Quintus Valerius series is a companion to my Otto Cornelius series. Set in third-century Roman Britain and across the Roman empire, these mystery-thrillers are centred around ex-Praetorian Imperial Investigator Quintus Valerius; his British associate, Tiro; and Lady Julia Aureliana, a healer and noble of the Durotriges tribe of southwest Britain.
“A survivor of Emperor Septimius Severus’s massive invasions of Caledonia, Quintus takes on a comprehensive role for the new British governor. He returns to Britannia in the first book in the series to investigate counterfeiting and rebellion in Somerset, where his own painful past is revealed. Successive novels plunge the trio into political assassination in Rome; a Pictish uprising north of Hadrian’s Wall; sacrilegious murders in Bath; and treachery at the court of the Irish High King.
“It’s such a thrill to extend my association with Sapere Books. Thank you, Amy and colleagues!”
Jacquie’s Substack newsletter, YouTube channel, magazine articles and social media can all be accessed via Linktree.
Congratulations to Neil Denby, whose action-packed Roman adventure, Scutarius, is out now!
Scutarius is the fifth book in the Quintus Roman Thrillers series.
In the high Alpen lands, Tiberius, General, Praetor, son of Caesar Augustus, is incensed by the insolence of the native tribesmen who dare to oppose him.
First Spear Centurion Julius Quintus Quirinius and his depleted cohort are posted behind enemy lines to eliminate them. They are to be irregulars, to act as shield-bearer or ‘scutarius’ to Tiberius’ armies, keeping the way before them clear.
If they succeed, Quintus and his men could win back their rightful ranks and stations in the legions. And might even finally be allowed to return to Rome.
But unfamiliar with the rapid turning of the seasons in the mountains, Quintus finds himself trapped by snow and lost in the vast lands of the enemy.
He needs to find a way forward, to do service to Caesar’s sons, but the task seems increasingly impossible.
Can Quintus find his way back to the battle? Could victory in the Alps be in his grasp?
Or will the fickle gods once more betray him…?
We are delighted to announce that we have signed a new trilogy of Roman mysteries by Jacquie Rogers.
In Jacquie’s words:
“My new series is set in a wealthy but remote part of third-century Roman Britain.
“Otto Cornelius is a garlanded senior officer in Chester’s XXth legion. Forced to take early retirement, he returns to his hometown of Viroconium Cornoviorum (now Wroxeter Roman City in Shropshire).
“He soon discovers that the quiet life of a pensioned-off officer is no sinecure, and Viroconium is no longer the idyll of his childhood. The murder of an itinerant Greek merchant, coupled with the theft of the iconic Wroxeter silver mirror, are just the beginning. Otto is quickly embroiled in a dangerous conspiracy, one in which old friends and new enemies have much to hide. No-one is who they seem, including Otto himself.
“I am so delighted to be working with Sapere Books. Their passion for historical fiction matches my own, and I’ve had the warmest of welcomes into their supportive organisation. I know my pacy Roman thrillers have found a wonderful home.”
Congratulations to Neil Denby, whose action-packed Roman adventure, Centurion, is published today!
Centurion is the fourth book in the Quintus Roman Thrillers series.
After wintering in Germania, Julius Quintus Quirinius is commanded to gather up the remains of his cohort and meet with General Drusus, who is marching with many legions west down the Rhine from the Alps.
But treacherous enemies and the fickle gods of the weather combine to slow them down. And a new force, led by a mysterious freedom fighter, is organising the local tribes against them.
Desertion plagues them and when the cohort commander is captured, Quintus and the other centurions have decisions to make.
They need to rescue their commander and destroy the fortress where he is being held, but they also need to lead the men to the Alpen passes that point to Rome and home.
Quintus has faith in his companions and knows they respect him in return. But he doesn’t want to test their loyalty by making an unpopular decision.
Can Quintus lead his cohort to victory – and their homeland?
Or will Rome once more remain beyond their reach…?
Congratulations to
42BC
Two years on from Julius Caesar’s assassination, his successors still crave vengeance. The massed legions of the new Caesar, Octavian, and Mark Antony face off against Cassius and Brutus at Phillipi.
Leading the charge for New Rome are primus pilus Titus Villius Macer and his optio, Crispus.
Their heroics come to the attention of Octavian’s spymaster, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, who recruits them for his Viper network of spies.
Their mission: Return to Titus’s native Sicilia to gather intelligence on its current ruler, Sextus Pompey.
But when Titus and Crispus arrive in Sicilia, they find much has changed while they’ve been fighting with the Fifth Legion.
The woman Titus came home to marry has grown cold and he must face up to domestic troubles while trying to help Agrippa restore Sicilia to Roman rule.
Suspecting a plot to assassinate Rome’s new rulers, Titus will face savage sea warfare against the local pirate fleet.
Can he uncover the deadly plot? Will he save another Caesar from assassination?
And can he save his family from the ravages of war…?
We are thrilled to announce that we have signed a new series of Ancient Rome novels by Alistair Tosh.
Alistair is the author of the Edge of Empire series — gripping adventures set in the tumultuous Roman Britain of the second century AD.
In Alistair’s words:
“My new series takes place during the Second Punic War (218–201 BC) between Carthage and the Roman republic in the important theatre of Iberia (Spain/Portugal). It focuses on the lives of two historic figures: Hasdrubal Barca (Carthage) the younger brother of the legendary Hannibal and Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio (Rome), uncle of the famous Scipio Africanus. The novels will follow the ebb and flow of their lives and fortunes as their armies struggle for dominance of the land and its warring tribes.
“I discovered the stories of Hasdrubal and Gnaeus quite by accident. Last year I spent several months in Andalusia, Spain and was seeking a subject for a magazine article to aid with the marketing of my most recent trilogy. I thought of writing something about Rome’s impact on the province and during my research stumbled across their story. There’s a lot to tell.
“I am delighted to be working with Sapere Books. It was clear from the start that Sapere not only treat their authors fairly but understand the commercial fiction market, has scale, industry expertise and a strong focus on digital marketing.”
