Book of the week - Paul Waters, Of Merchants & Heroes

This is Paul Waters first novel, and is the first in a projected series. He is described as well-travelled classicist, and the book addresses serious themes. There have been some very positive notices, and it looks like an interesting read. I will post a review in due course, but in the meantime now is the time to pick up your signed and dated copy at list price. "A consuming story of love, loss and redemption set in the classical world of Rome and Greece, Of Merchants and Heroes is the story of a young man's pursuit of his father's murderer and of the values and qualities he develops. At the end of the third century BC, as Republican Rome's long war with Carthage was at last drawing to a close, it was already threatened by a new enemy, Philip, the tyrant King of Macedon in the east...Into this turbulent world emerges our Roman hero, Marcus, whose father is brutally murdered by pirates on a journey from Italy to Corfu on a visit to his uncle. Fate takes him to some of the great cities of the Greco-Roman world at a time of major turbulence, where he learns much and finds love unexpectedly. The book addresses political and philosophical questions that are timeless - democracy and tyranny, war and self-defence, right and duty as well as questions of love, loyalty and betrayal."