The Sacred Land

by H. N. Turteltaub

"In Over the Wine-Dark Sea and The Gryphon’s Skull, H. N. Turteltaub brought to life the teeming world of maritime Greece, in the unsettled years following the death of Alexander the Great. Now Menedemos and Sostratos, those dauntless capitalists of the third century B.C., have set sail again--this time to Phoenicia. There Menedemos will spend the summer trading, while his cousin Sostratos travels inland to the little-known country of Ioudaia, with its strange people and their even stranger religious obsessions.

In theory, Sostratos is going in search of cheap balsam, a perfume much in demand in the Mediterranean world. In truth, scholarly Sostratos just wants to get a good look at a part of the world unknown to most Hellenes. And the last thing he wants is to have to take along a bunch of sailors from the Aphrodite as his bodyguards."

Get Out or Die

By Jane Finnis

"Ill-fated legionnaires contend with a ruthless band of guerrillas seeking to rid their homeland of unwanted occupiers. Tensions run high as headless bodies begin appearing along the roadways of remote Brigantia, the adopted home of plucky Aurelia Marcella and her sister Albia, who are keepers of the Oak Tree Mansio, an inn catering to the elite of the empire's 'raw new province.' Crudely carved discs bearing the title's ominous words are hung on each new corpse, and the same menacing phrase mysteriously appears on Aurelia's barn shortly before a savage nighttime attack by the 'Shadow-men,' a rebel group believed to be led by a Roman turncoat."

"The Secundus Papyrus"

"Getorius, a physician, and Arcadia, his beautiful wife and medical apprentice, embark on a journey during a time shrouded in mystery.
Getorius and Arcadia are summoned to determine the monk's cause of death. Shortly after, the couple, along with several other colorful characters, are invited to the palace of Galla Placidia, a Gothic Empress and mother of Flavius Placidus, the Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
While on an impromptu tour of the palace's new mausoleum, an ancient papyrus is found in a booby-trapped wall niche.
One by one those present at the discovery of the papyrus begin to die.
Getorius and Arcadia know the contents of the papyrus could have a huge and devastating effect on not only the empire, but on the future of mankind as well. Wondering when they themselves could fall victim to the killer, they try to answer seemingly endless questions. Was the papyrus forged? Who hid it in the booby-trapped mausoleum? Who knows about it, and what will they do with its contents? And what is the meaning of the symbol of a cockerel or rooster that keeps appearing in unexpected places?"