Novel of ancient Rome and the early years of Julius Caesar.

Pliny the Younger and Tacitus, the future historian, are returning from a posting by caravan and break the journey in Smyrna. In the morning one of their number is discovered with his heart cut out.

Jon Kendrick, the only true friend of Zebediah Crummler, the caretaker of Felicity Grove's cemetery who has been arrested for murder and imprisoned, must make sense of Crummler's riddles, ravings and inconsistent stories, which have buried within them the clues to who killed Teddy Harnes.

Following a string of disastrous house-sitting assignments, and with troubles in her recent personal life, Thea Osborne is understandably apprehensive about her latest commission: a wintery month in an isolated farmhouse with only an assortment of animals, including her loyal spaniel Hepzie, for company. When she stumbles across a man lying dead in a snow-filled field, Thea is once again at the heart of a mystery in the gorgeous Cotswold countryside.