Policing – A complicated subject for writers

Bas-relief of Ancient Rome vigiles by Carlo Sorgi (1941) at the Italian National Firefighters Training School

When I wrote a post about Ancient Roman law enforcement, I discovered how complicated the system was. Vigiles were principally firefighters but carried out policing duties as well and cohortes urbanae were heavy duty riot police. They’d […]

I've joined the Crime Writers' Association!

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve been accepted into the Crime Writers’ Association. You can guess what its members do…

Ever since INCEPTIO, since Karen Brown was targeted, kidnapped and threatened, there has been crime running through the Roma Nova thrillers. Our heroine even served as a policewoman, or custos as they say in Roma […]

Thriller, mystery, action adventure, suspense, or what?

What’s in a genre? More precisely, what’s the difference between the genres in the title? Are there any hard lines between them?

And what do we, as readers, get from each of them?

Action stories feature a lot of movement-heavy exciting scenes including but not limited to fights, shootouts, car chases, foot chases, explosions, fast […]