Ancient Mystery Fiction

50 AD. The invasion is over, and Roman Legions spread throughout the land, a blood red stain on Britannia. Caratacus has fled south to rebuild his army, and warriors flock to his banner. In the north, a disgraced legionary grasps the chance to regain his honour and joins the Exploratores, the elite Roman unit operating behind enemy lines. Soon he is tasked with disrupting the plans of Caratacus, but deep inside he nurtures a deeper mission, the chance to fulfill an oath made six years earlier.

It's Rome, 44 BC, and the Ides of March are approaching. Julius Caesar has been appointed dictator for life by the Roman Senate. Having pardoned his remaining enemies and rewarded his friends, Caesar is now preparing to leave Rome with his army to fight the Parthian Empire. Gordianus the Finder, after decades of investigating crimes and murders involving the powerful, has set aside enough that he's been raised to the Equestrian rank and has firmly and finally retired. On the morning of March 10th, though, he's first summoned to meet with Cicero and then with Caesar himself.

Cole and Stella have lived in Costa Rica for the last seven years. They wanted to believe that it was really over...but there were always doubts. And when Stella sees a horrifying vision in the jungle, she's certain that the Ancient Enemy has returned. David, living at his aunt's house in New Mexico, knows the Ancient Enemy is back; he can feel it. And now nightmares about a serial killer possessed by the Ancient Enemy plague him, a killer who will stop at nothing, a killer who is coming for David.

After a career with a shadowy security firm with interests on both sides of the law, Dante has come home to put all that behind him and has gone to work for a private investigator. A call alerts him early one morning that Bill Owens, a fellow P.I., has been charged with a notorious 30-year-old killing. Bill was involved in a political group in the late 60s, which among other pranks and small-time crimes, held up a bank....

After a rancher finds 10 mutilated bodies at an archaeological dig site on the Navajo Reservation, both Captain Begay of the Navajo Tribal Police and Special Agent Palmer of the FBI become involved...but the case leads Palmer back up to Colorado where five more mutilated bodies and Stella's vehicle have been discovered at a burning cabin. Cole, Stella, and David escape the cabin, heading south. Stella believes David is a natural-born shaman, and knows their only hope of David ever defeating the Ancient Enemy is to find a reclusive shaman named Joe Blackhorn who can help train David.

While the man called Nikolas continues his violent murder spree, Maria comes to Peter's rescue in Sicily. New clues found by Don Luigi require Peter...

It's the summer of AD 79, and Flavia Gemina the sea captain's daughter -along with her friends Jonathan the Jewish boy, Nubia the African slave-girl, and Lupus the homeless beggar-boy - set sail for the Bay of Naples, to stay with Flavia's uncle near Pompeii. They are soon absorbing in trying to solve a riddle that may lead to treasure. But then tragedy strikes - Mount Vesuvius erupts and the children are fleeing for their lives from one of the worst natural disasters ever recorded.

A scroll is discovered, buried among the ancient papyri of the Dead Sea. Father Leo Newman, a priest from Rome, discovers that the text appears to be a fifth gospel. If the scroll is authentic - and if the radical, incendiary story it tells is true - all of Christianity itself will be open to a complete reinterpretation...

The St. Charles Players present multi-cast dramatizations of some of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest works, including The Black Cat, The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether, The Purloined Letter, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

A long-lost diary, a rare book of ghost stories, and unrelenting nightmares combine to send archeologist Michael Rempart on a forbidden journey into the occult and his own past. When Michael returns to his family home after more than a decade-long absence, he is rocked by the emotion and intensity of the memories it awakens. His father is reclusive, secretive, and obsessed with alchemy and its secrets - secrets that Michael possesses. He believes the way to end this sudden onslaught of nightmares is to confront his disturbing past.

Teenager Rebecca “Becka” Williams, her younger brother Scott, and her friend Ryan Riordan are swept into heart-stopping encounters with an all-too-real invisible world - a world fraught with deception and spiritual adversaries that promise goodness and enlightenment but will stop at nothing to destroy life, sanity, and human souls.

Flavia, Jonathan, Lupus, and Nubia - friends and detectives - sail to the Bay of Naples to spend the summer with Flavia's uncle, who lives near Pompeii. There they uncover a riddle that may lead them to a great treasure. Meanwhile, tremors shake the ground, animals behave strangely, and people dream of impending doom. One of the worst natural disasters of all time is about to happen: the eruption of Mount Vesuvius!

March, AD 80. In Rome, the Emperor Titus has announced that there will be 100 days of games to open the new Flavian amphitheatre (now known as the Colosseum). Suspecting that their friend Jonathan is not dead, as they had thought, Flavia, Nubia, and Lupus organize an invitation to Rome on the pretense of witnessing this historic event.

A puzzle left behind by Sifu Faiza's grandfather has everyone stumped. A circle divided into wedges shows part of the formula for an ancient medicine. But some of the wedges are blank, and no one knows how or why the original formula disappeared! Joy, Adam, Amy, and Sam will have to use clues - and fractions - to discover the truth about...the ancient formula.

In the hard, unforgiving land at the northernmost point of the Roman Empire lies a great wall. Once, the edge had been but a thing of thoughts and dreams, but one day the great Emperor from across the water had grown tired of such borders. So, a wall was raised from the earth at his command. From afar, it looked invincible. Yet every wall has its weaknesses—if one looks close enough. In its shadow gather five thousand fearsome soldiers. Men bred to fight and kill. The Sarmatians have suffered capture and defeat, but under a new command they are prepared to fight again.

In de historische misdaadroman Moord op de Via Appia staat het antieke Rome, 52 jaar voor Christus, in lichterlaaie. Rebelse politici keren zich tegen de Romeinse Republiek en krijgen steeds meer steun van de bevolking. Wanneer het levenloze lichaam van de activistische politicus Publius Clodius midden op de Via Appia in Rome wordt aangetroffen, doen er wilde geruchten de ronde over de moordenaar. De rivaal van Publius, Milo, is een van de verdachten. In opdracht van Cicero, een goede vriend van Milo, is het aan detective Gordianus de Vinder om de waarheid te achterhalen.

Redemption and revenge: can they be one and the same? Marcus Sempronius Gracchus, a soldier of Rome, has spent two thousand years cursed to walk the earth, but that journey may soon end. He has secured the only weapon capable of stopping ultimate evil, but is he already too late? Will Thomas find the ancient seal and open the gates of hell, ushering in the end of times?

Roma, 49 a. C. A la luz de la luna, una mujer con el rostro surcado por el tiempo, pero aún intacto en su belleza innata, sostiene una carta entre sus manos. La caligrafía no da lugar a dudas: sabe que se trata del amante a quien ha acompañado siempre, en sus momentos de gloria, pero también en los más vulnerables: Cayo Julio César. La República se tambalea, y la misiva tampoco es un buen augurio. César le explica a su querida Servilia que ha decidido cruzar las fronteras sagradas y franquear el río Rubicón.

El auriga Gayo Apuleyo Diocles, un ídolo de masas romano del siglo II, pierde la memoria durante un asalto, que poco a poco se descubre que responde a una conspiración a través de la manipulación en las carreras. Las autoridades le piden su colaboración para contrarrestar este plan y se ve inmerso en una conspiración política para desentrañar la verdad y recuperar la memoria.

Despite his situation, Paaten believes his future is not in the enemy land of Hatti. As Paaten struggles to find his way back to his homeland of Egypt, he finds himself in an unforeseen battle, waging the biggest war yet: that of his heart. Will Paaten's perceived enemy ensnare his love and loyalty, or will he return to Egypt to fulfill his destiny and oath to pharaoh?