No ruin in Roman Europe has been safe from me from the age of eleven. I’ve dragged members of my family along ancient cobbled roads, up towers and aqueducts and into theatres and arenas. But sharing this thirst/lust/obsession with similarly-minded is a joy.

I love being a Roman writer and being seen as one. I’ve talked concrete, ball-bearings, legionary foot problems, gladius design, Republican virtue, tactics at Cannae, fictitious handshakes, Apicius’s cookbooks, imperial women, dodgy medical practices, informers, sea trading and the cursus honorem with the best of them.

Writing is another obsession, an isolated act done in a secluded room with a lot of tea to hand. However, you need a team of colleagues and informed supporters to give feedback (brutal and kind), advice and encouragement. Little inspires you more than receiving praise from those in the same field. So I was delighted when Roman fiction and thriller writer Douglas Jackson agreed to read RETALIO. We’d met up from time to time at conferences and events. He is such a genuine guy and we had illuminating conversations about thrillers, Romans, heroines, book progress and the joy of writing.

In his Gaius Valerius Verrens series, Douglas places us firmly in the Roman battlefields of the first century AD from the final part of Nero’s reign and that terrible year of the Four Emperors before the Flavians became the ruling dynasty. “Action-packed and rigorously researched” fits his series perfectly which he built on from his earlier books Caligula and Claudius. His writing is so vivid – you are there, terrified, elated and rooting for Verrens at every step. I loved Hero of Rome and am currently devouring the second in series Defender of Rome.

Douglas says:
“RETALIO is a classic tale of resistance and resilience as an exiled Aurelia Mitela leads an army of the dispossessed to free Roma Nova from the clutches of the despicable Caius. As always Alison Morton’s alternative world where a fragment of the Roman Empire has survived to the present day feels utterly authentic and Caius’s Roma Nova, where women have been turned into virtual slaves is chillingly reminiscent of the Nazi occupied territories of the Second World War. RETALIO reaches an explosive climax in the tunnels of the capital as Caius’s empire crumbles, and the only regret when the action stops is that this is the final book of a remarkable trilogy.”

What a terrific review!

I want to thank Douglas publicly for taking such an interest in Aurelia’s personal and public battle against the tyranny of her nemesis and in providing me with a terrific endorsement  to sit on the front cover of RETALIO – praise from him is gold indeed.

Douglas – gratias maximas tibi ago!

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA and INSURRECTIO. The sixth, RETALIO, came out in April  2017. Audiobooks now available for the first four of the series

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