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Ovid

(OVID is the 1st of the Marcus Corvinus series)

'So tell me.' I was getting pretty angry myself now. I'd had a long hard day and I wasn't taking this crap from anyone. 'You just tell me, Dad. Tell me why the emperor hates a dead poet so much he won't allow his ashes back to Rome. Tell me why when I ask questions about a scandal so old that you can't even smell it any more everyone keeps his mouth shut closer than a Vestal's kneecaps. Tell me why I nearly end up in the Tiber with my throat cut...'

Such are the frustrated words of Marcus Corvinus, a young man who likes to have a good time and enjoys wine, women and laughter far more than a hard day's work. He also happens to be the grandson of the Roman poet Ovid's former patron.

So when Ovid's stepdaughter, the luscious Rufia Perilla, begs him to recover the poet's ashes and bring them back to Rome, how can Marcus refuse? Not that the task turns out to be easy: official permission is abruptly denied. And as Marcus starts asking questions in the higher echelons of Roman society he finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a web of secrecy, treachery and deceit.