Dead Men's Sandals is the most recent title in David Wishart's Marcus Corvinus series, which is one of my top five favorite series. However, as I've mentioned before, this series seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it series, primarily, I think, due to his use of "current" and rather snarky vernacular for the dialogue, which some folks find anachronistic. (Although I have to imagine that snarky people existed in ancient Rome too
...)
Also some folks have indicated that they think it's historically inaccurate, although to me, Wishart's often detailed historical notes let me differentiate between what is historical and what is fiction, and that's good enough for me. Here's a link to a post with some samples of some of the historical notes, and the rest of the discussion is in a few posts around this one, so you can make up your own mind:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?p=3659210
In any case,
Sandals has dropped to £0.99 at Kindle UK right now.
Kindle UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Mens-S...dp/B086H57X3G/
Kindle UK/Smile:
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Mens...dp/B086H57X3G/
Oh yeah, and Wishart has mostly been traditionally published, but has self-pubbed a few titles. I've read and liked them all. Most recently, including this one, he has self-pubbed - somewhere (website? interview?) I remember him indicating that he didn't want to deal with deadlines from his publishers any more, so was self-pubbing. Me, I wish he had some deadlines, because I'd love another book in the series...
Spoiler:
Quote:
‘Ah, Corvinus.’ Eutacticus was beaming. Bad sign; bad, bad sign. ‘Glad you could make it. Sit down, boy. You had a good summer?’
Oh, shit; small talk. With Eutacticus you never, ever got small talk. Forget bad; in terms of signs we were into fully-fledged omen territory here.
‘It was interesting, yeah,’ I said. ‘We were away most of the time. We’ve just got back, in fact.’
‘Excellent! So you won’t have unpacked yet?’
‘Ah...no, as it happens. We’re planning to go down to Castrimoenium to see our adopted daughter and her family. They’re–’
‘Were planning.’
I blinked. ‘Come again?’
‘You heard.’ The smile broadened even more, revealing an incisor. ‘Were planning. Past tense. You owe me and I’m calling in the favour. You’re going to Brundisium.’
‘What?’
‘A little job I want you to do for me.’
Deputed by crime boss Sempronius Eutacticus to investigate the murder of one of his ‘colleagues’, Corvinus finds himself mixing with the soured cream of Brundisium’s criminal élite.
The twenty-first book in the Marcus Corvinus series.
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