Rome's Spy — William Kelso

Summer 217 BCE. As Hannibal advances into central Italy after his great victory at Lake Trasimene, Rome stands bloodied, shocked but unbowed. Rallying the Republic, a defiant senate appoints Quintus Fabius Maximus as dictator and tasks him with putting an end to the Carthaginian invasion of Italy. Near the Roman colony of Placentia, on Rome’s northern frontier, Flavius, father, patriot and spy in the service of Rome has built a new home for his growing family. But duty to country and family do not always go hand in hand. Called away to Rome to help his patron Trebonius save the fledgling intelligence gathering organisation for which he works, Flavius must leave his family at a perilous time. Stuck in Rome Flavius soon finds himself drawn into a sinister and deadly Carthaginian plot where nothing is what it seems. Faced by old and new foes, betrayal and hostile politicians, Flavius must race against time to stop disaster from striking at the heart of the Republic.Having run away from home to join the legions, Julian, Flavius’s nineteen-year-old son, has come through the battles that have given Rome a tenuous but crucial foothold in the Iberian Peninsula. But Carthage and her allies are canny, resourceful enemies. Soon Julian and his young comrades are ordered south on a dangerous mission where their mettle as soldiers of the Republic will be tested in more than one way.Rome’s Spy is Book 3 of the Soldier of the Republic series