Only the working title! But it amuses me.
Genre: m/m romance
Length: TBD
Format: novel
Progress: Brief excerpt posted. Chapter 1 drafted. Various other chapters tidily organised in Scrivener. It’s progress!
This was going to be the 2013 NaNoWriMo project, but got derailed by a writing challenge that I just couldn’t resist. I’m still toiling away on it, but not as part of the NaNo word count.
The Blurb: The almost-crippling injury that drove ex-legionary soldier Silvanus out of the army has worsened enough to convince him to take his chances seeing a physician at the temple of the god Aesculapius . . . leading him into the rough care of a doctor, Martius, whose medical knowledge and sharp eye are just what Silvanus needs to help him in his new profession as a sort of speculator, Rome’s version of a private investigator for the wealthy. Martius is curious as to how an investigator makes his living, and he cannot help but be a little curious about the man himself as well. The idea of acting on any physical urges paralyzes Martius with the knowledge of how illness is so easily spread through a touch. Yet somehow the idea of sharing all manner of frowned-upon activities with the gruff and handsome man still entices him.
Their first job as partners seems straightforward—prove to a senatorial family’s satisfaction that their eldest son and heir committed suicide. If he was murdered by one of his slaves, then the entire household staff should rightly be executed as a lesson to all other slaves, an expensive prospect for the family and far more embarrassing than a suicide willingly chosen for a sensible reason. To Silvanus, his duty is clear: to save the lives of the men, women, and children who will be put to death if any single one of them is judged guilty. But Martius cannot ignore the obvious: the man was murdered, and the clues point straight into the servant quarters. If Silvanus and his new partner cannot find another solution for the crime, every slave in the house will be put to death.
This page has the following sub pages.
Carolyne Chand 
Leave a Reply