Book
Blood & Poison
First published 2023
In 26 BCE Marcus Agrippa orders Rufus Varro to entrap Publius Dio, a former drinking companion who has become a powerful smuggler and moneylender. Varro expects to manipulate an old acquaintance, but Dio understands the city’s criminal and financial networks better than the imperial agents pursuing him. The intended target remains one move ahead and begins threatening Varro’s household.
The novella turns an intelligence operation into a personal hunt. Manius provides physical protection, but Varro must decide how far he will imitate Dio’s methods to protect those he loves. The case exposes the overlap between respectable credit, organised crime and state espionage in Augustan Rome, where Agrippa’s authority does not guarantee that his agents control the violence they initiate.
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