Dream Boat

by Marilyn Todd

When Marcus Cornelius Orbilio, the handsome investigating officer, starts digging deep for clues, Claudia realizes she must track down the murderer herself. Before her husband finds out what she’s been up to.

  And another man meets his grisly end.

  VIRGIN TERRITORY

  When you marry a man for his money, you expect him to leave you a shining pile of gold pieces. Not a crummy old wine business. How was the new widow going to pay off her gambling debts now?

  So when Claudia is offered payment to chaperone Sabina back to Sicily, she jumps at the chance. It should be easy money. Sabina, she’s told, has recently completed her thirty years’ service as a Vestal Virgin.

  Or has she...?

  Very quickly, Claudia suspects she’s escorting an imposter. Then a woman’s brutalized body is found.

  MAN EATER

  On the eve of the Festivities, the last thing you’d expect Claudia to be doing is heading in the other direction. But even lovely young widows must put business before pleasure when their vineyards are threatened with arson.

  But being run off the road by a gang of hooligans was not part of her gameplan. Neither was seeking shelter in the strange home of Sergius Pictor, surrounded by the menagerie of wild animals he’s training for the Games.

  But Claudia is about to become the victim of an even crueller game. That night a stranger appears at her bedroom door, with a knife sticking out of his belly.

  And before the first ray of morning sunshine, Claudia has been framed for his murder.

  WOLF WHISTLE

  Had it not been for the pack of dogs nipping at her heels, Claudia would never have ventured into the mean backstreets of Rome. Or found an abandoned five-year-old called Jovi.

  With the Empire in crisis, there couldn’t be a worse time for rich young widows or sobbing children to be out after dark. Five slave girls have fallen victim to a killer who strikes on Market Day.

  All five are linked by the dragon tattoo they each wear on their arm which marks them out as the ‘Children of Arbil'. But Arbi! is no loving father. As Claudia is about to find out...

  FOR THE UPCOMING DARK HORSE

  When Claudia is caught doping racehorses, Leo's island villa seems the perfect refuge. Shaded by figs and pomegranates, this luxurious idyll is surrounded by plunging cliffs, sandy coves and

  hillsides scented by carpets of wild herbs.

  Then a pirate ship moors in the bay, and almost immediately a fire breaks out, an apprentice is murdered, and sinister messages are delivered on the point of a spear.

  Too late, Claudia discovers that three hundred miles isn’t far enough to escape the law.

  Or evil in its very purest form.