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#BookReview #Ad The Emperor’s Shield (Legionary 9) by Gordon Doherty

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The Emperor's ShieldAbout the Book

Easier to split the sky, than part a soldier from his blade.

386 AD. The Eastern Roman Empire faces a trident of threats. The Gothic truce grows unstable. The standoff with Persia escalates. And the ambitions of the usurper on the Western throne grow dangerously unchecked.

Pavo, a broken veteran of the legions, cares for none of these things. His life is one of pastoral seclusion on his Thracian farm. A life of love, of peace. His wife and young son are his world. Still, every so often, things seen and done in his old life haunt him, like a cold and unwelcome breeze. But that is all they are, echoes of the past…

…until the past rises, like a shade, to rip his world and the Roman Empire apart.

Format: eARC (466 pages)                      Publisher:
Publication date: 16th February 2023   Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Emperor’s Shield (Legionary #9) on Goodreads

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Amazon UK
Link provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The Emperor’s Shield is the ninth book in the Legionary series featuring Roman soldier, Pavo. It’s only the second book in the series I’ve read – the other was number seven, The Blood Road – although I’ve also read two books in the Rise of Emperors series co-written with Simon Turney.

As the book opens, Pavo has swapped the military life for that of a farmer – or, at least, that’s what he thinks.

The Roman Empire is divided and in turmoil, well on the path to its eventual decline and fall, with the bonds that held its disparate parts together weakening and enemies beyond its borders a growing threat. Add the machinations of those hungry for power within the Empire and you have a time bomb waiting to explode.

It’s no surprise that Pavo’s military experience and strategic nous sees him receiving a recall to the service of Emperor Theodosius. It’s a recall he initially refuses until the repercussions of the turmoil in the Empire come frighteningly close to home. ‘F**k Rome and its fat aristocrats and magnates. All that matters to me is my family… They are my empire.’

Reading the author’s note one realises just how skilfully he has conjured an exciting story out of historical fact, adding fictional characters such as the secretive Frugilo, Pavo’s faithful friend, Sura, and, of course, Pavo himself.

Once again, Pavo lives up to his reputation as a formidable fighter, an inspired tactician and a loyal comrade.  But you can’t see and do the things Pavo has without it having an impact. As he confides, ‘In my sleep, I see the ones who have fallen. So many, too many’. But is the scene that haunts his dreams over and over again, memories of his past or a vision of the future?

The Emperor’s Shield is historical fiction with something for everyone. There are intense, bloody and bone-crunching battle scenes, including some brilliant set pieces such as the storming of a seemingly impregnable fortress. There is detail of Roman army structure, weaponry and military strategy that oozes authenticity. (A helpful glossary is provided for those who don’t know their hexareme from their liburnian.) And an element of mystery is introduced by means of a man known only as Peregrinus, whom we know is a wily and ruthless traitor at the very heart of Theodosius’ inner circle, but whose identity remains a secret. His mission is to create havoc, something he does very successfully with others paying the price of his deadly game.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Emperor’s Shield. The author reveals the next book will be the last in the series. What does the future hold for Pavo? I’d like to hope it involves a peaceful life alongside his wife and son – after some more exciting adventures of course.

My thanks to the author for my advance review copy. Gordon supports the charity Myeloma UK and if you would like to make a donation to this great cause, follow this link to his JustGiving page.

In three words: Action-packed, assured, thrilling

Try something similar: Masters of Rome by Gordon Doherty & Simon Turney

Gordon DohertyAbout the Author

Gordon Doherty is a Scottish writer, addicted to reading and writing historical fiction. His novels have been Amazon smash-hits, and have gone on to be translated and published in Russia, Italy and Greece.

Gordon’s love of history was first kindled by visits to the misty Roman ruins of Britain and the sun-baked antiquities of Turkey and Greece. His expeditions since have taken him all over the world and back and forth through time (metaphorically, at least), allowing him to write tales of the later Roman Empire, Byzantium, Classical Greece and even the distant Bronze Age.

Connect with Gordon
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#BookReview Where Roses Never Die by Gunnar Staalesen, trans. by Don Bartlett @OrendaBooks

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Where Roses Never DieAbout the Book

September 1977. Mette Misvær, a three-year-old girl disappears without trace from the sandpit outside her home. Her tiny, close middle-class community in the tranquil suburb of Nordas is devastated, but their enquiries and the police produce nothing. Curtains twitch, suspicions are raised, but Mette is never found.

Almost 25 years later, as the expiry date for the statute of limitations draws near, Mette’s mother approaches PI Varg Veum, in a last, desperate attempt to find out what happened to her daughter. As Veum starts to dig, he uncovers an intricate web of secrets, lies and shocking events that have been methodically concealed. When another brutal incident takes place, a pattern begins to emerge…

Format: Paperback (272 pages)  Publisher: Orenda Books
Publication date: 1st June 2016 Genre: Crime, Thriller

Find Where Roses Never Die on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

Where Roses Never Die is the eighteenth in the author’s crime series featuring private investigator, Varg Veum. It precedes the only other book in the series I’ve read, Wolves in the Dark. (Not all the books in the series have been translated into English.) But don’t worry if you haven’t read all, or even any, of the previous books in the series because Where Roses Never Die works perfectly well as a standalone.

The book finds Varg in a state that will be familiar to those who’ve read earlier books in the series. He’s recovering from a tragic event in his personal life and the three years since then have disappeared in a haze of booze. He feels he’s ‘wandering restlessly through life’s back streets’. His bank account is all but empty, the new cases have dried up and it’s a struggle to keep off the bottle. Recalling when he was at his worst, he observes, ‘I was the emperor of the empties, and I had hundreds of vassals, empty, silent and glassy-eyed’.

He needs something to rescue him from his ‘daily demons’ and what has become ‘the longest and darkest marathon’ of his life. The unsolved case of Mette Misvær, a three-year-old girl who disappeared without trace nearly 25 years ago, may be just that. It might even give him the willpower, and an excuse, to remain sober.

Varg sets about investigating the case with his customary dogged determination, even going so far as to pick the brains of an old adversary, the now retired Inspector Dankert Muus who handled the case originally. He interviews the residents and former residents of Solstølen Co-Op, a community of five houses. Some of them are extremely reluctant to talk to him. What is it they have to hide? Varg discovers a complex web of connections but one which for a long time seems just to confuse the situation not make it clearer.  It’s a seemingly random, unconnected event that brings about a breakthrough but not before Varg has found himself in a series of sticky situations and uncovered some pretty dark stuff.

Is Mette still alive? If so, who was responsible for her disappearance and how has she remained undiscovered all these years? You’ll have to read the book to discover the answers to those questions and I’ll be very surprised if you find them before Varg.

Varg Veum
Life-sized statue of Varg Veum in the centre of Bergen

Varg Veum is a wonderful character. He’s quick-witted and not easily dissuaded from a course of action. Yes, he’s flawed, a little world-weary and often consumed by dark thoughts but he always remains likeable because of his strong sense of justice, wry sense of humour and the fact he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. I was pleased that the end of the book holds out the possibility of a little light coming into Varg’s life once again.

Where Roses Never Die is a skilfully-crafted, compelling crime mystery with plenty of twists and turns.

In three words: Gripping, intriguing, unsettling

Try something similar: End of Summer by Anders de la Motte

Gunnar Staalesen

About the Author

One of the fathers of Nordic Noir, Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen, Norway, in 1947. He made his debut at the age of twenty-two with Seasons of Innocence and in 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series. He is the author of over twenty titles, which have been published in twenty-four countries and sold over four million copies. Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, starring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Espen Seim. Staalesen has won three Golden Pistols (including the Prize of Honour). Where Roses Never Die won the 2017 Petrona Award for Nordic Crime Fiction, and Big Sister was shortlisted for the award in 2019. He lives with his wife in Bergen. (Photo/bio: Publisher website)

About the Translator

Don Bartlett lives with his family in a village in Norfolk. He completed an MA in Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia in 2000 and has since worked with a wide variety of Danish and Norwegian authors, including Jo Nesbø and Karl Ove Knausgaard.