Murder in the Eagle's Shadow

Paperback 251 pages ISBN 9781904959069 Author: Malcolm Seymour Cover design: Zoë Farmer Price £12.00 (price includes delivery worldwide) Publication date 31 October 2004

Synopsis

Twenty years have passed since the Twentieth Legion defeated Queen Boudicca and the Iceni and they are preparing to celebrate. The guest of honour is to be Julius Agricola, Governor of Britannia and a former commander of the Twentieth Legion.

On the eve of his arrival the Senior Centurion, Quintis Flavius Acilianus, is found slumped over his desk with an iron stylus embedded in his neck. The medallion he had received for his part in the defeat of the Iceni had been stolen. The Legion's physician, Hermogenes, examines the body and discovers that the cause of death was not the stabbing but poisoning.

Agricola undertakes an investigation into the murder and soon discovers that there is no shortage of suspects. For various reasons several of the men in the adjacent barrack-room would like to see Acilianus dead and his former second-in-command, Modernus, who had been demoted, was an obvious suspect.

At lunch Agricola suspects his dish of snails has been poisoned and later during a boar hunt he falls from his horse and is nearly killed by the boar. Someone had cut through his saddle girth.

Several more suspects are investigated, before the murderer is discovered.