About this ebook
Set in modern day Italy this is also a fast-paced and gripping thriller about the recovery of that treasure.
The cast includes a roguish Italian Prime Minister, his favourite escort girl, dissolute diplomats, corrupt police officers and the mafia.
The action involves a helicopter jail break, kidnappings, a shoot-out with the mafia, and the discovery of a hoard of riches from the ancient world.
On one level this is a light and amusing story set in the present day, but on another it draws on genuine historical records to point the way to one of the richest graves in antiquity – a grave that, according to Edward Gibbon in ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’, had been constructed in a river-bed after its waters had been diverted ‘by the labour of a captive multitude’, a grave containing ‘the splendid spoils and trophies of Rome, one whose secrecy was assured by ‘inhuman massacre of the prisoners who had been employed to execute the work’ – and one about which the world appears largely to have forgotten.
The grave awaits discovery . . .
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About the author
Robert Fortune spent his career as a criminal barrister, most recently as a KC. He always enjoyed reading and writing and planned to write the novel Alaric’s Gold for many years, ever since he came upon the story of the Gothic leader’s river-bed burial in Edward Gibbon’s ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’. For more details please visit the author’s website – www.robertfortune.co.uk
