Nox Dormienda: A Long Night for Sleeping (An Arcturus Mystery)

Gale/Five Star, 2008. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 8x5x1. Signed. Hardcover, first printing, 2008. Signed by author with no inscription to title page. As New hardcover in As New dust jacket. In illustrated boards, featuring exact same design as the dust jacket. The first of two books in the award-winning Arcturus mystery series, set in the year 83 AD in Londinium, in Roman-ruled Brittania. From the inner flap: "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.... If Arcturus doesn't find out who murdered [the spy] 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.... 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.