What is Jane Finnis reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Jane Finnis, author of Get Out or Die, A Bitter Chill, Buried Too Deep, and Danger in the Wind.

Her entry begins:

I'm reading a lot of Roman-era books at present. I've been hooked on the Roman Empire ever since, as a teenager, I first read Robert Graves' wonderful books, I, Claudius and Claudius the God. That's why I set my own mysteries in Roman Britain. But I don't feel comfortable reading fiction with a Roman background while I'm working on my own stuff. However I'm between books just now, so it's catch-up time, and it's great.

I usually read two books at once. Confusing? No, because they are in different formats: one in print, one in braille. Having had bad eyesight all my life. I've used braille since my schooldays, (including I, Claudius,) and I still enjoy reading it. Quite the best place to relax with a braille novel is in bed, with myself and book tucked underneath the covers, comfortable and warm however cold the night. The only problem is - as with all night-time bookworms - I often become so absorbed that I keep turning the pages well after I should be asleep.

That certainly happened recently with Imperium by Robert Harris. It recounts...[read on]

About Danger in the Wind, from the publisher:

A fine summer in 100 AD and good government under Trajan Caesar promise well for the Roman settlers in the frontier province of Britannia.

Aurelia Marcella runs a mansio on a busy road to York. June is always busy, but one day two unusual events occur: a soldier is murdered in his bed at the inn, and a letter arrives from Isurium, a small fort north of the city. It is from a cousin, Jovina, inviting Aurelia to a midsummer birthday party. But the missive also reads as a plea for help, referring to “danger in the wind.”

The murdered soldier also bore a message, locked in Aurelia’s strongbox, indicating violence would erupt at the very same fort on the day of the party.

At Isurium, Aurelia finds Jovina and her drunken husband and unruly children caught in a tangled web of greed, love, intrigue, and death. When violence engulfs the district, Aurelia suddenly finds herself in peril from enemies engaged in an anti- Roman plot and from family members bent on misguided or evil agendas of their own. This is the 4th in a series.

Jane Finnis' Aurelia Marcella novels tell of life and death in first-century Roman Britain, the turbulent province of Britannia, on the very edge of the Roman Empire. The three previous books in the series are Get Out or Die, A Bitter Chill, and Buried Too Deep.

Visit the official Jane Finnis website.

The Page 69 Test: Buried Too Deep.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Jane Finnis & Copper and Rosie.

The Page 69 Test: Danger in the Wind.

Writers Read: Jane Finnis.

--Marshal Zeringue