Nox Dormienda a Long Night for Sleeping (Thorndike Press Large Print Historical Fiction: Arcturus) - Hardcover

Stanley, Kelli

3.64

269 ratings by Goodreads

9781410409706: Nox Dormienda a Long Night for Sleeping (Thorndike Press Large Print Historical Fiction: Arcturus)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1410409708 ISBN 13: 9781410409706

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2008

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One week to solve a murder.

Londinium, 83 AD. Vibius Maecenas, spy for Emperor Domitian, lies on an underground altar ... his throat slit to the spinal chord.

One week to stop a civil war.

Arcturus, the governor's doctor and sometime investigator, must find out who butchered him--and why--before Agricola and all of Britannia are plunged into civil war with Rome. He'd also like to know where the blonde fits in ...

Welcome to Roman Noir.

NOX DORMIENDA is the first of a new series in a new genre: Roman Noir. Featuring Arcturus, a hardboiled protagonist in the best Philip Marlowe tradition, NOX is a different kind of historical mystery, a suspense thriller that combines a classic noir style with the rich texture of the ancient past.

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From the Inside Flap:

Saturnalia is almost over, but drunks and gamblers aren't the only denizens of Londinium knocking on the doctor's door. The winter of 836 a.u.c. (83 A.D.) is cold and bitter. The year's final exhale will be colder still.

Arcturus--the half-native, half-Roman doctor and occasional problem-solver--has seen much in his thirty-three years. He's risen--despite not playing the politics game. He is Agricola's doctor. And Agricola's friend. And Agricola is the governor of Britannia.

Now, on a frozen December afternoon, he learns the governor is in trouble. The Emperor Domitian has sent a spy to Britannia--a spy carrying papers demanding Agricola's resignation. It doesn't make Arcturus any warmer to know that the spy, a Syrian named Vibius Maecenas, is betrothed to the woman who brings him the story. The woman--Gwyna--is as unforgettable as her information.

When Arcturus sends his freedman Bilicho to follow her, he finds himself, hours later, in an underground temple, staring at a shapeless hulk on top the altar. It's the trussed, dead body of Maecenas, with a gaping hole in place of a throat.

If Arcturus doesn't find out who murdered him and why, Domitian might think the governor is responsible. The fat, dead Syrian will ignite a civil war, one hot enough to thaw the ice in frozen Britannia.

He has seven days to unravel fact from story, truth from rumor, and motive from murder. He must walk a carnival landscape of fear and uncertainty, strewn with sadistic pimps, drunken whores, well-bred politicians and four more deaths.

Nox Dormienda is a nightmare vision of Roman Britain, a lightning-paced historical mystery that blends hardboiled prose and impeccably researched historical background. It is the first novel of a new series and a new genre of mystery fiction: it is Roman Noir.

About the Author:

Kelli Stanley's first hard-hitting novel in the Miranda Corbie series, CITY OF DRAGONS, was met with overwhelming critical acclaim, won a Macavity Award, and was a finalist for the Shamus Award and the prestigious Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Stanley also writes a highly-praised series set in Roman Britain, the latest of which is THE CURSE-MAKER. Her debut novel, NOX DORMIENDA, won the Bruce Alexander Award for best historical mystery. She makes her home in Dashiell Hammett's San Francisco, earned a Master's Degree in Classics, and loves jazz, old movies, fedoras, Art Deco and speakeasies.

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