Last of the Ninth Stephen

A Roman legion annihilated, an imperial agent vanished. Malorix, a deadly agent of the Imperial Secret Service, follows their trail eastward to Parthia and beyond. Haunted by supernatural forces and his own past, he will join forces with Lucian, a de... Read more

A Roman legion annihilated, an imperial agent vanished. Malorix, a deadly agent of the Imperial Secret Service, follows their trail eastward to Parthia and beyond. Haunted by supernatural forces and his own past, he will join forces with Lucian, a deviously subtle spy-handler, as they struggle to unravel a conspiracy to unseat an emperor. To survive Malorix will have to learn what is to be a leader and confront the terrible spectre that haunts the last survivors of Rome's most infamous legion. Last of the Ninth tells a story of one man's struggle for redemption and belief. The HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY says, Bennett's gripping, fast-paced novel, Decimus Malorix, a Sarmatian member of the Frumentarii, ancient Rome's secret police (a formidable character feared even by his own people and known as the Emperor's assassin), is sent on a perilous mission: to trace the mysterious disappearance of the Ninth Legion and to recover, if possible, the secret agent working in its ranks - before that agent's explosive revelations can become public.Malorix's quest takes him across a chunk of the first-century Roman Empire, and the pace of Bennett's narrative never slackens. The dialogue is crisply believable, and there are elements of the climax that even the most veteran reader of Roman historical fiction won't see coming. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Less