Born in 1969, she is an expert on the topic of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
holds a doctorate in philosophy and is an admirer of Umberto Eco.
Also authored L'or et la cendre (Paris: Ramsay, 1997) and
Petite métaphysique du meurtre (PUF).
Reviews of the book, in Spanish, may be found at the
Libros por Escape and
Mil Libros
websites.
A review in German is available at
Stadtbücherei Bergneustadt.
(10/5/98)
English author Rosemary Rowe, married name Rosemary Aitken,
currently lives in Gloucester,
the same area in which her stories are set.
She is mother to two adult children and grandmother to two living in
New Zealand where she herself lived for twenty years.
Born in Cornwall during the Second World War, she also has
authored a series of novels set there during the
turn-of-the-century, including
Cornish Harvest,
Girl from Penvarris
and
The Tinner's Daughter
(
hardcover;
paperback;
US edition)
and several books on language and communication including an audiocassette
Play it by Ear
which teaches English in eleven different situations, for example, the
simulated kidnapping of a millionaire's wife.
See her
web page at the ISFDB Author Directory.
[short stories]
(3/23/99)
Dr. Gail-Nina Anderson is an art historian and writer in Britain.
She has edited
Heaven on Earth: The Religion of Beauty in Late Victorian Art
and given talks on the subject of "William Morris: Utopian
Designer, Dreamer and Poet.
Some of her reporting for the Northern Review Online: Visual
Arts UK can be found at the
Northern Review web site.
See her
web page at the ISFDB Author Directory. (3/17/98)
American author Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton's (October 30, 1857 -
June 14, 1948)
wide set of interests is reflected by a very impressive
legacy of works. In the setting of Ancient Greece, she
authored
The Immortal Marriage and The Jealous Gods
along with Dido: Queen of Hearts which is set in
Tyre and Carthage. She wrote straight-ahead histories in
Conqueror,
A Few of Hamilton's Letters,
California: An Intimate History
and
The Living Present.
Atherton (her married name) lived for many years at Valparaiso Park.
She scandalized her mother-in-law and others, who believed ladies
should not write, by documenting early life in the Bay Area California
towns of Atherton, Menlo Park and Palo Alto in her popular novels
including
Rezánov,
The Doomswoman,
The Splendid Idle Forties (1800-1846),
A Daughter of the Vine,
Transplanted (The Eighties),
The Californians,
A Whirl Asunder (The Nineties),
Ancestors,
The Valian Runaways,
Sisters-In-Law,
Sleeping Fires, and
The Avalanche.
But she also had an abiding interest in other places as attested by
her novels
Foghorn,
The White Morning,
Mrs. Balfame,
Perch of the Devil (Montana),
Tower of Ivory (Munich and England),
Julia France and Her Times (B.W.I. and England),
Rulers of Kings (Austria-Hungary, Adirondacks),
The Traveling Thirds (Spain),
The Gorgeous Isle (Nevis, B.W.I.),
Senator North (Washington),
Patience Sparhawk and Her Times (California, New Work),
The Aristocats (Adirondacks),
The Bell in the Fog,
Black Oxen,
The Crystal Cup (New York), and
The Sophisticates.
With Mary O'Hara, she adapted her novel to the screenplay of the 1924
film Black Oxen.
Some of her work is collected in the anthology of ghost and horror stories
Classic Ghost & Horror Stories : An Anthology.
Read more about Mrs. Atherton in her autobiography
Adventures of a Novelist
and in the biographies
California's Daughter: Gertrude Atherton and Her Times by Emily Wortis Leider
and
Gertrude Atherton
(Boise State University Western Writers Series ; No. 23) by Charlotte S. McClure.
See also
Literary Gothic.
(1/16/99)
Born in 1949, Scottish author Paul Barnett has also written the
Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters
and in the science fiction and fantasy fields, for publications
such as Albion and The World.
Novels include
Strider's Galaxy
and
Strider's Universe.
In addition, he is editor for
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. (3/17/98)
Dr. Bell holds a Ph.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill and has has taught in the
history department of Hope College, Michigan since 1978. A a literary
renaissance man, he has published nonfiction and historical fiction as
well as mysteries. He has been quoted as saying "When I read a book
I.m more interested in one with a plot that keeps moving rather than
long descriptive passages or philosophical reflection." He and his
wife have four children and a grandchild. Visit the author at
www.albertbell.com
(7/16/11)
John Blackburn (born 1923) is also the author of the novels
A Scent of New-Mown Hay,
A Sour Apple Tree,
Broken Boy,
Dead Man Running,
The Gaunt Woman,
Blue Octavo,
Colonel Bogus,
The Winds of Midnight,
A Ring of Roses and
Children of the Night.
Born in Valencia (Spain) in 1956, the author holds a degree in Law.
In addition to his Roman-era novels, he has also written the non-mystery
historical novels La balada de la reina descalza
(The Ballad of the Barefoot Queen, 1995) and
La bahía del último aliento
(The Bay of the Last Breath, 2003).
(9/4/05)
Born in Chicago, now living in London, (the possibly unsinkable)
Molly Brown has also written
the historical novel
Invitation to a Funeral
(
hardcover;
paperback;)
which is
set in Restoration London, the mystery work
Cracker to Say I Love You
and for children,
Virus.
Read more about her at the
Molly Brown website. (3/17/98)
Raised in Michigan, Ron Burns studied European history and
international affairs at Georgetown University. He has had a
career as a feature writer and editor for United Press
International, the Philadelphia Bulletin and the
Los Angeles Herald Examiner. His latest historical
mystery is titled The Mysterious Death of Meriwether
Lewis. Ron Burns lives in Santa Monica, California.
[short stories][in German][in Spanish]
(4/24/00)
After being born and educated in England, Richard Butler in 1963 accepted
a teaching position in Australia. After his fourth novel in 1974, he
gave up teaching to write and to act. Nineteen novels later he lives in
Melbourne and is active in radio and television. (2/23/02)
The American author is a high school Latin instructor, who was
first interested in all things Roman by a childhood gift of toy
soldiers. (Name appears to be a pseudonym.)
(6/8/14)
Born in 1958, British author Simon Clark has written the horror novels
Blood Crazy,
Darker,
King Blood
and
Nailed by the Heart,
as well as the short stories
"The Bone Beast" and
"City of Ancient Skulls" (both 1996).
His work also appears in the anthology
Blood and Grit.
See his
web page at the ISFDB Author Directory. (12/6/99)
British author Charles Connell (born 1910) is also the author of
The World's Greatest Sieges.
His degree from Birmingham University was in Music.
He was also an instructor at the
Duke of York's Royal Military School at Dover,
Kent, England. During World War II he was said to be a spy in Belgium.
He was reportedly a very thorough teacher and
could also play the piano, being a particular fan of Fats Waller.
He wrote stage plays based on the novels of Chalres Dickens
in order to bring them to life for students and started a book club
for them as well. Other projects included ghost writing military
biographies. His book Where Sleeps the Jagged Sword
treated the role of the Polish soldiers who managed
to get to England. Apparently, they were the troops who
eventually stormed Casino, not generally known at the time.
One book for which he was credited concerned the
use of spy gear during the war.
(4/8/01)
Read more about his novel
Attentat à Aquae Sextiae
at the website of the
publisher including an excerpt from chapter one and
a plan of Aquae Sextiae.
(5/11/00)
Like Wallace Nichols,
Lindsey Davis was born in Birmingham, England (1943). In
fact, one can almost see the inspiration for her first book
in Nichols' final tale, "The Great Tin Mine Case". The
technique of having each tale follow directly the last one
is also one shared with Nichols. After studying English
at Oxford, Davis joined the Civil Service. Her full-time
writing career from her home in Greenwich now keeps her
far too busy for that, however. Lindsey Davis has won the
Crime Writers Association "Dagger in the Library" award
for the author who provided "the most pleasure" in 1995.
Besides her Roman-inspired efforts,
in the anthology
Perfectly Criminal
she has written a short
story "Abstain from Beans" set in Magna Graecia (Croton in southern
Italy) in the sixth century BC which is based on the historical
murder of Pythagoras (who as well as being a famous
geometer ran a strange philosophical school, one of whose tenets
was that one should not eat beans due to the slight resemblance of
the shape of broad beans to the unborn fetus). The lead protagonist
is the historical Milo of Croton.
(US edition).
For more information, see
The Official Website of Lindsey Davis.[short stories][excerpt][on audiotape][in Dutch][in French][in German][in Italian][in Japanese][in Spanish][miscellaneous]
(1/23/00)
Besides The Theme is Murder (1967), British writer
Miriam Allen DeFord (1888-1975) also authored the true crime book
Murderers Sane and Mad / Case Histories in the Motivation
and Rationale of Murder (1965).
Other books on ancient Rome include
Cicero as Revealed in His Letters (1925),
The Life and Poems of Catullus (1925),
The Augustan Poems of Rome (1925)
and Latin Self Taught (1926).
Her historical crime writing outside Rome includes
The Overbury Affair / The Murder that Rocked The Court of
James I (1960, winner of the Edgar Award),
The Real Bonnie and Clyde (1968) and
The Real Ma Barker (1970).
Outside of Rome and the realm of fiction she may claim credit for
Love Children / A Book of Illustrious Illegitimates (1931)
and
Thomas Moore (1967).
Elswhere, Elswhen, Elsehow / Collected Stories (1971)
and "Xenognesis" (1969) are two of her works in the realm of
science fiction.
No information is available for this German author. Perhaps we
can guess that he lives in the area of Xanten, the ancient version
of which forms the setting for his first novel in this genre.
(1/15/08)
Born 1946 in northeastern England. Studied for the priesthood
for a time, then switched to get a degree in history and became
a secondary school teacher. Has written a great number of
historical mysteries, not just in the Roman genre, but also
medieval, Greek, Egyptian and others. Other pseudonyms he has used
include C. L. Grace, Paul Harding, Ann Dukthas and Anna Apostolou.
He has also written non-fiction historical books.
Learn more at his
website.
(7/23/07)
Born 1921 in Szabadka, Yugoslavia, the Hungarian writer was a
soldier captured by Russians during World War II and spent six
years a prisoner of war. Eventually returned to communist
Hungary, he escaped during the 1956 revolution and eventually
emigrated to Canada. He has authored several other novels
on various topics.
Read more at the
Domokos/Toews website.
Ruth S. Downie was 49 in 2003 and in the following year won the
Fay Weldon section of BBC3's End of Story competition.
She lives in Milton Keynes, is married, has two sons and is said to
enjoy gardening, archaeology and singing in a blues band. A video
example of the last appears to be available on the Internet.
(7/12/07)
German author Hermann Falk (1901-1981) was a schoolteacher, but
managed to publish numerous novels, especially mysteries and
juvenilia. To him goes the honor of the first author of a
Roman mystery in the German language. (11/21/97)
Born in Murcia, Spain, the doctor of classics and author teaches
in the Humanities Department of the Universidad Autónoma
de Ciudad Juárez. Before becoming a professor,
he had extensive experience as a theatre actor, playwright
and director. He's also considered an authority on
comics, graphic literature and movie history and
criticism, on which he ocassionally teaches and writes articles
for local publications. For more, see his IMDb page.
(3/27/24)
The author's fascination with the Roman past began early, as a child walking
the straight Roman roads of Yorkshire. She seems to be a bit of a polymath,
reading history at London University, but broadcasting for BBC radio and
programming computers. She is married and sometimes still broadcasts under
her married name Jane Copsey. Learn more at the
Jane Finnis website.[short stories]
(11/1/2003)
The American scholar and author has a degree in medieval history
from the University of California at Los Angeles. She is the
author of the medieval mystery St. Oswald's Niche. She has
also published a number of short stories in fantasy anthologies
and science fiction magazines. Laura Frankos is married to author
Harry Turtledove.
(2/26/01)
Born in Brühl in 1967, the German author studied German and
English at Cologne University before working as an editor in print
and television. Today, besides being an author he is also a
freelance journalist.
(6/12/06)
Born in 1952, this British author works mostly in the
realm of science fiction and fantasy. Among her novels are
The Brooch of Azure Midnight,
Dancing on the Volcano,
Mindsail
and
Wishbone.
(10/13/98)
German author Robert Gordian has also written mysteries set
in early medieval Germany, his characters Odo and Lupus setting
up the first detective office of the Middle Ages during the reign
of Charlemagne. (11/21/97)
American author Charles Edward Gray (born 1926) also co-authored,
with Walter D. Pierce,
Deciphering the learning domains/a second generation
classification model for educational objectives, published
in Washington D.C. The connection between the books may be seen
in Gray's protagonist's interest in "mental traits".
Australian author Claire Griffen has also been a secretary,
actress and award-winning playwright. In the Classical vein
she has set her play "Hawk Among the Doves" in Troy before the war.
She is also author of the science-fiction short story "Catalyst".
See her
web page at the ISFDB Author Directory. (8/22/97)
Gisbert Haefs was born January 9, 1950 and makes his home in Bonn.
He is well known in Germany for a series of non-historical
mysteries and several voluminous historical novels about Hannibal,
Alexander the Great, and the siege of Troy. He also writes science
fiction and works as a translator (notably of the works of Arthur
Conan Doyle) and editor.
His work has been discussed on a number of websites:
Born in San Diego on August 28, 1951, Barbara Hambly is far better
known for her work in the fields of science fiction and fantasy.
Among the many works to her credit are
Bride of the Rat God
(
UK edition),
Crossroad
(
UK edition),
Dragonsbane
(
UK edition),
Ghost-walker
(
UK edition),
Ishmael
(
UK edition),
Mother of Winter
(
UK edition),
Planet of Twilight
(
UK edition),
Sorcerer's Ward
(
UK edition),
Star Wars: Children of the Jedi
(
UK hardcover;
UK paperback),
Star Wars; Nightlily: The Lover's Tale
(
UK edition),
Star Wars; v.7: Children of the Jedi
(
UK edition),
Star Wars; v.9: Planet of Twilight
(
UK edition),
Travelling with the Dead
(
UK edition),
Like many authors, she has had a varied career, at different times
working as a high school teacher, model, waitress, technical
editor, all-night clerk and karate instructor. She has studied
medieval history at the University of California at Riverside
and at the University of Bordeaux, eventually earning a
Master's Degree in the subject. In 1978 she earned another
impressive achievement, a Black Belt in karate. She lives in
Los Angeles, California.
Learn more about this popular author at
her fan web page and at
her publisher's page.
[in German]
Born in March 7, 1957, the British writer studied English literature at
Cambridge, worked for the BBC and has also been political editor
for The Observer. He has authored several nonfiction works
as well as very popular novels such as
Fatherland,
Enigma,
Archangel
and
Imperium. This last is to be a trilogy around the life of
Cicero, the second installment, Conspiracy to appear in late
2008.
Born in 1941, Mr. Hartel, once a
writer-editor for the German edition of Playboy magazine,
is an internationally-acclaimed archaeological writer whose credits
include
The Curse of the Pharaohs,
Nefertiti,
The Golden Pharaoh
and
Der grüne Skarabäus.
Mr. Hartel resides in Munich.
Besides Epictetus, Keith Heller has written historical mystery
stories featuring William Blake, the Chinese magistrate Ti Jen-Chieh
and George Man, a London parish watchman (in Man's Illegal
Life (1984)).
(6/2/97)
Born in 1966, Bernhard Hennen has studied German philology, history
and Near Eastern studies, and lives in Köln, Germany. He
also writes fantasy novels and can be heard on several radio stations
as well.
This Northern California (Berkeley, in one report) author
is said to be married with two grown children who have also
written short fiction. Learn more about her works at her
website.
(11/30/98)
Longtime mystery writer and editor Edward Dentinger Hoch was
practically an institution in the field. Born in 1930, he
published over eight hundred mystery stories including one in
every issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine from 1973 to
1981. His TV writing credits include episodes of "MacMillan
and Wife", "Night Gallery", the "Alfred Hitchcock Show", and
"Tales of the Unexpected". Mr. Hoch served as president of the
Mystery Writers of America
and mades his home in Rochester, New York. He also wrote
mysteries under the pseudonyms
Anthony Circus, R.E. Porter and R.L. Stevens.
Mr. Hoch died January 17, 2008.
You might want to check out this
interview
or this
guide to his work
a complete
bibliography of his work.
In recent years Mr. Hoch had been tracking the passing of other
mystery writers in
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
Who will track his death and continue this work now?
[short stories as R.L. Stevens]
(1/17/08)
Born in 1970, Tom Holland is also the author of
The Vampyre / The Secret History of Lord Byron
and Supping with Panthers. He grew up in Salisbury,
was in a doctoral program for romantic literature at Oxford and
now is married in Brixton. He has also written plays and for radio.
(9/18/97)
The author was born in Merseburg in 1940, but now is a pediatrician in France.
Other works include:
Warmer Sonner, heißer Herbst (1990, about the end of the GDR);
Der Gärtnerbursche von Wörlitz: Kriminalerzählung (1991, another
historical mystery); and
Altitona - der magische Berg (1999 novel). His book
Cave canem: Roman aus dem alten Rom
appears to be the only Roman mystery every published in the former
East Germany.
(9/27/01)
Born September 13, 1961, Briton Tom Holt is also the author
of the very popular comic fantasy novels
Expecting Someone Taller, (1987, based on
Wagner's Ring cycle)
Who's Afraid of Beowulf, (1988)
Ye Gods!
and
Faust Among Equals,
but he has also written two straight historical novels set
in Greece of the 5th century BC:
Goatsong
and
The Walled Orchard.
Read more about him at
Calle's Page on Tom Holt
and in the USENET newsgroup devoted exclusively to his creations,
alt.books.tom-holt[miscellaneous]
(10/19/98)
"Malachy Hyde" is a pseudonym for two German authors, Ilka Stitz and
Karola Hagemann. Born in 1961,
Karola Hagemann has studied history, but today works in
the area of advanced training for the state criminal police
agency in Hannover. Ilka Stitz, born 1960, studied classical archaeology and
journalism and today is a spokeswoman for a federal agency in Köln.
In their spare time the authors travel to the ruins
of Antiquity, particularly in Turkey.
They have posted a summary of their book at
Amazon.de.
You can also read more about them and their work in German at
their website.[in German anthologies][miscellaneous]
(7/16/00)
With his The Julius Caesar Murder Case published in 1935,
author Wallace Irwin (1875-1959) can rightly be considered
the first practitioner of the Ancient Roman Mystery genre
(see chronology).
But he also had a wide number of other interests which took form
in a large number of novels including (in order)
The Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum,
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam, Jr.,
Fairy Tales of Up to Now,
Nautical Lays of a Landsman,
At the Sign of the Dollar,
Chinatown Ballads,
Random Rhymes and Odd Numbers,
Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy,
Mr. Togo, Maid of All Work,
Pilgrims into Folly,
Venus in the East,
The Blooming Angel,
Suffering Husbands,
Seed of the Sun,
Lew Tyler's Wives,
The Golden Bed,
Mated,
Lew Tyler and the Ladies,
The Days of Her Life,
More Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy, and
North Shore.
He also wrote, in collaboration, for the movies and his work can be
seen in The Uplifters (1919),
The Golden Bed (1925) and
The Woman in Red (1935)
(from his novel North Shore).
Phyllis Ann Karr has written historical mysteries for
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (1974). Her 1980
book Lady Susan is after the style of Jane Austen.
She has also worked in the field of fantasy including
The Idylls of the Queen (1982) about King Arthur,
Wildraith's Last Battle and, as Irene Radford,
Glass Dragon.
See her
web page at the ISFDB Author Directory. (8/22/97)
Born in 1938, Michael Kurland is an established writer in the fields
fantasy, science fiction, mystery and horror. He has also authored
How to Solve a Murder
and
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Unsolved Mysteries.
(2/23/02)
Born in California in 1954, Caroline Lawrence has lived in London for twenty years.
Moved to England on a Classical Archaeology scholarship at Cambridge,
she also holds a degree in Hebrew and Jewish Studies
from the University of London. Caroline Lawrence lives by the
Thames with her husband, a graphic designer.
Visit
her website.
(5/15/01)
French author Anne de Leseleuc holds a doctorate in archaeology
and works for the French national museums. She has also written
a scholarly work about Gallo-Roman religion, Le chien compagnon
des dieux gallo-romains, (1980) and two non-mystery novels,
Le douzième vautour (1983) and Eponine
(1985), which is also set in Roman Gaul. (1/15/99)
British author Michael Levey is Director of the National Gallery
in London and has written several books on the subject of art
history and a number of short stories. His first novel was
Tempting Fate. Michael Levey was born in 1927.
The German author was born in salzgitter in 1963 and studied
journalism in Munich, later working in that profession, becoming
an editor. He lives with his wife and son in Bremen. He has
written quite a few historical mysteries for children including
such topics as Alexander and Genghis Khan.
(11/7)
The American author was born in Chicago, has a masters in Classics
and a doctorate in ancient history. He has been a professor
and also a Peace Corps volunteer. Roman Games is his
first novel and he is at work on his second.
(3/7/11)
A neurologist at the Hospital of San Carlo di Milano, Rosario
Magrì divides time between medical and literary careers. Other
publications include a number of books for children as well as
two books of religious humor, Scherza coi Santi
and Malamela.
Og Mandino was born December 12, 1923. In his life, Mr.
Mandino sold insurance, served in the United States air forces
during World War II and was president of a company.
Some of his other books include
A Treasury of Success Unlimited (1966),
The Greatest Salesman in the World (1968),
The U.S. in a Nutshell (1971),
Cycles; The Mysterious Forces That Trigger Events (1971),
The Greatest Secret in the World (1972),
The Greatest Miracle in the World (1975),
The Gift of Acabar (1978)
and
The God Memorandum (1980).
He served as president of Success Unlimited magazine
for 12 years retiring in 1976 to devote all his time to writing
and lecturing. (12/19/97)
Born c. 1946, Martha Marks holds a Ph.D. in Spanish literature
and linguistics from Northwestern University and taught
at Northwestern and Kalamazoo College. Lately hailing from
Santa Fe, New Mexico, she enjoys the novels, plays, and poetry
of great Spanish and Latin American authors. For more, visit Martha's website.
(8/16/2013)
The author, born in Israel, has made his home in Australia for
a number of years, but grew up on Asterix and was inspired by a
childhood visit to Italy. By day he is a software product manager
and lives in Sydney with his wife, four kids and two cats.
Read more, including short stories, at
egretia.com.
(11/9/15)
This German author was trained as an engineer, but keeps busy as
a writer, editor and translator. Past works include
Die Römer an Rhein und Main (straight history);
Die Reiter des Mars,Das Con-Buch zum WeltCon 2000 in Mainz,
"Naturgesetze, Reform Römisch Eins" and
"Die gekrönte Sonne"
(all science fiction-related) and
"Eine Sache der Mitspieler" (nonfiction).
He lives in Wiesbaden, Germany and maintains a website which
includes considerable resources on Tolkien's Middle-Earth at
http://lalaith.vpsurf.de
(11/09/07)
Italian author Danila Comastri Montanari was
born in Bologna in 1948 and has received degrees in Education
(1970, Bologna University) and Political Science, historical
branch (1978, Bologna University). She won the Tedeschi Prize in
1990 for her first novel, Mors tua. Other historical
mystery novels include
La campana dell'arciprete,
set in Bologna in 1824 (Garzanti, Milan 1996);
Il panno di mastro Gervaso,
set in Bologna in 1796 (Diabasis 1997); and
Ricette per un delitto,
an anthology of mystery tales about food, set from 16th to the 20th
centuries (Periplo 1995); She has also written
Sfogliami, spogliami / a cura di Paola Salsi e Laura Santini
(Bologna, 1994).
The author reports that she lives in a big flat in the center of
historic Bologna, city of the world's first university,
with her husband, daughter, two she-cats, a parrot,
a forest of plants, three computers and ten thousand books;
she travels widely, especially in Mediterranean area and the Far
East. Her own reading includes mysteries, science-fiction,
historical novels, Greek and Latin Classics and a lot of essays.
Visit Danila Comastri Montanari at her
new web site.[in French][in German][in Greek][in Polish][in Romanian][in Russian][in Spanish][in Italian anthologies]
(6/25/99)
American author Ray Faraday Nelson's (born 1931) career has explored
science-fiction, fantasy, poetry and non-fiction as well as
historical mystery. Among his novels are
TimeQuest, Prometheus Man,
Murder Among Friends,
In the Footsteps of Jack London,
Arthur the Celt,
Arthur the Roman,
Revolt of the Unemployables,
Dimension of Horror,
Ecolog,
Then Beggars Could Ride,
Blake's Progress,
D.A.'s Wife,
How To Do It,
Agony of Love
and Ganymede Takeover.
His short stories have appeared in Weird Tales,
Fantasy and Science Fiction,
Science-Fiction Review,
Harper's Weekly, Amazing Stories,
Fantastic Adventures,
Gallery, Parade,
and several others. The John Carpenter Film
They Live is based
on his short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning".
It is widely agreed that Nelson is the inventor of the jargon
term "propeller head".
French classicist and university professor Jean-Pierre Nèraudau
(1947-1998) published several scholarly works about ancient Rome
including
La jeunesse dans la littérature et les institutions
de la Rome républicaine
(1979),
Être enfant à Rome
(1984),
Ovide
(1992),
and as co-editor,
Hommages à Henry le Bonniec/Res sacrae
(1988).
He has also authored the biography
Auguste: la brique et le marbre
(Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1996).
[in German][miscellany]
(6/5/00)
Sixty stories by poet and novelist Wallace Nichols (1888 - 1967)
about the fictional slave detective, Sollius, posited in the
second century AD, ran in London Mystery Magazine
between the years 1950 and 1968, making Nichols one of the
pioneer
writers of Ancient Roman mysteries. Born in Birmingham, Nichols'
career seems to have take a number of turns including editor at
Windsor Magazine and reader at Ward's Lock. He wrote
historical novels, including Simon Magus,
and adventures for boys. His command of five languages excepts the
several ancient ones he spoke, including Babylonian and Egyptian.
Acquainted with luminaries such as Churchill, Elgar, Dylan Thomas
and Lawrence of Arabia, he moved to Cornwall for health reasons
in 1934. After 1949 he would sit working out his mysteries in a
little old Elizabethan wing of a country house near Penzance.
[excerpt][in German anthologies][in Italian anthologies] (6/24/97)
The author, lately resident in New Mexico, has been a
teacher and holds degrees in art and the humanities.
Discover more at
his website.[in Spanish]
(8/3/06)
Born in 1936, this Munich resident has written many non-mystery
historical novels, including some on Roman topics:
Kreuz und Adler: das zweite Leben des Judas Ischariot
(1978);
Im Schatten des Feuerbergs: Der Roman Siziliens
(1989; dealing with multiple periods in the history of Sicily);
Caligula: der grausame Gott
(1990);
Kleopatra: im Zeichen der Schlange
(1996).
(12/11)
Born in Canberra, Australia, Joan O'Hagan and her diplomat
husband have lived in New Zealand, the South Pacific, America
and Rome. She has also written Death and a Madonna,
Incline and Fall and Against the Grain.
Before
The Water Thief,
this author's previous novels were both historical mysteries
set in a background of military occupation, one in World War II
Poland the other in Italy of the same war. She was born in Rome
on March 5, 1950 as Maria Verbena Volpi, received there a degree
in archaeology and is an associate professor at Nowich University
in New England. She teaches the social sciences and her
wide-ranging interests include Federico Garcia Lorca, the genocidal
mind, ethnomusicology, feminist literature, Greek and Latin
archaeology and Italian immigration to Vermont.
She has also authored many short stories for mystery magazines and
does not deny the influences of Hermann Melville, Yukio
Mishima, Joseph Roth, Toni Morrison, Nikos Kazantzakis, Georges
Simenon, Raymond Chandler and Hans Hellmut Kirst. She lives in
Vermont with her husband and daughter.
(7/9/07)
The German author, who hails from the Saarland, studied languages,
literature, ancient history and archaeology. She has authored a
dissertation on ancient Roman mysteries. She has also worked as a
journalist.
(01/14/08)
English author Mary Ray was born at Rugby in 1932. She was
educated at Rugby High and at the College of the Ascension,
Selly Oak. Among her other works
for children and young adults are The Voice of Apollo,
The Golden Bees, The Windows of Elissa
(set in Carthage), Eastern Beacon,
Rain from the West and Song of Thunder.
(7/9/08)
Australian author Kel Richards has hosted a radio program in
Sydney and has also authored several thrillers set in modern
times, as well as at least two books of stories for children.
Richards was born in 1946.
Some of his books are
Second Death
(UK edition)
and
Third Bloodstain
(UK edition).
(3/18/98)
This bestselling author has penned fifty novels, including in the
horror field. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and
three children. For more on Jeremy and his pennames, visit:
www.bewareofmonsters.com.
Born in 1948, this German author teaches Latin and jurisprudence
to secondary school students in Cologne, the modern site
in which his ancient stories are set.
(11/7/05)
The author was born in Aschaffenburg, Germany in 1966, studied
philosophy and Catholic theology and now works as an author
in Köln. She has won prizes for her detective fiction.
(1/16/08)
Steven Saylor, a free-lance writer and editor, is probably
the most widely-published current author in the genre. Born in Texas
in 1956, he studied history at the University of Texas. Since then his
stories and essays have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery
Magazine, The Armchair Detective,
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,
The San Francisco Bay Guardian and
The Threepenny Review. He continues work on his ROMA SUB
ROSA series from his home in Berkeley, California, where, as
he puts it, "one can hardly swing a dead cat without hitting a
mystery writer."
Saylor has said that he probably won't be writing any more short stories
in the Gordianus series. He points out that if he writes one,
he then needs to find eleven more stories to fill out an anthology
or else the story will be an orphan only published in a magazine,
in his view. This is regrettable since the short story may be his
best form, or at least the form he does better than most everyone
else. I wonder that he doesn't consider adding a short story to the
end of a novel as other authors have been doing ... He has also
said that he would someday like to tell us a Gordianus prequel
story in which he travels to see the seven ancient wonders of the
world, or at least their ruins, which sounds fascinating, though
reaching Babylon in republican days seems like it would have been
nearly impossible.
Saylor appears in the TV documentary The Great Empire: Rome
which has shown on the History Channel cable network in the United States.
His second novel,
Arms of Nemesis,
has been optioned by a Hollywood studio, with
Donald Westlake(The Grifters) working on the screenplay.
Find out more about the author and his creations at his own
Steven Saylor Web Site;
see
this interview at
Amazon.com
and
this article
on the inspiration behind his novel
Rubicon,
(also at
Amazon.com).[short stories][excerpt][on audiotape][in Czech][in Dutch][in French][in German][in German anthologies][in Italian anthologies][in Russian][in Spanish][miscellaneous]
(3/11/08)
Steven Saylor receiving a laurel wreath from Dr. Patrick Hunt
at the Stanford Archaeological Institute of America, April 6, 2018:
Someone who spoke to him told me that Saylor has now retired from
writing.
(11/10/21)
The German author was born in 1956 and was a long time industrial
engineer. She lives with her husband and muse, a cat named Mira, in
Bad Godesberg, Germany.
(6/12/06)
As a retired assistant district attorney, the author should know
the topic of crime firsthand.
He has also written A Roman Stoic Guide to Retirement, Old Age
and Death.
He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Yale law
school.
(9/23/12)
Darrell Schweitzer is also an editor and reviewer, mostly in the fantasy field.
Along with the novels
Mask of the Sorcerer
(UK edition),
Shattered Goddess
(UK edition),
he has written or edited
Discovering Classic Fantasy Fiction : Essays on the Antecedents of
(UK edition),
Discovering Modern Horror Fiction; Bk.1
(UK edition),
Discovering Modern Horror Fiction; Bk.2
(UK edition),
Dream Quest of HP Lovecraft
(UK edition),
Exploring Fantasy Worlds: Essays on Fantastic Literature
(UK edition),
Lord Dunsany: A Bibliography
(UK edition),
Science Fiction Voices; No.1: Interviews with Theodore Sturgeon,
Alfred Bester, Frederik Pohl and
(UK edition)
and
Speaking of Horror : Interviews with the Writers of the Supernatural
(UK edition).
(3/18/98)
Born in 1964, Kelli Stanley is a mystery writer and Classicist.
She graduated from San Francisco State University where David Leitao
was her thesis advisor. Her specialty
is Rome with a particular interest in mystery cults – her thesis
was an investigation of Orphic belief in Euripides' Bacchae
– translation (particularly of Latin poetry), Roman Britain,
gender studies and interpretations of classical themes in popular
culture. Find out more at
her website.[short stories]
(6/15/07)
After studying classics and history, Mr. Stöver (1937-)
worked as a school teacher and is now a full-time writer. Apart from
novels, he writes books for children and non-fiction, almost
exclusively about ancient Rome. With thirteen Roman mystery novels
and a short story to his credit, Mr. Stöver is probably
the most prolific writer in the genre.
[in German anthologies][miscellaneous]
(6/20/97)
Born in 1925, Canadian author
"Al" Tassie
is a graduate of the University of Manitoba,
a former newspaper journalist and naval officer especially interested
in the study of the late Republic and the early Empire.
(12/28/99)
The author was born in the German city of Essen in 1954. He has
undertaken formal study of Latin and philosophy. Since 1985 he has
written for several daily newspapers and since 1990 as the
representative for cultural affairs for the city of
Neukirchen-Vluyn.
(2/3/08)
Marilyn Todd was born in Harrow, Middlesex. For the last ten years
she has run her own secretarial business from home.
I, Claudia
is her first novel. She now lives in West Sussex with her husband,
a dog and two cats.
She has lately started a new series featuring an ancient Greek
detective. Todd fans will have to follow her further tales at
The Sibyl & Sleuth.[short stories][in German]
The author, aged at least 49 in 2006, lives with her husband and
cat in Winnipeg, Canada. She has written many short stories,
which have been published in numerous magazines. Read more at the
Domokos/Toews website.
Harry Turtledove, born 1949 in Los Angeles, California, is the
author of over a dozen novels and many more stories, mostly in
the realm of science fiction. Notable is his Videssos Cycle
set in the medieval Byzantine empire and his series entitled
The Tale of Krispos.
Others include
Fox and Empire
(
UK edition),
Guns of the South
(
UK edition),
How Few Remain
(
UK edition),
King of the North
(
UK edition),
Two Georges
(
UK edition),
Worldwar: In the Balance
(
UK edition),
Worldwar: Striking the Balance
(
UK edition),
Worldwar: Upsetting the Balance
(
UK edition).
Holder of a Ph.D. in Byzantine history
from UCLA, he has taught there and at California State Colleges
at Fullerton and Los Angeles. He once made a living as a
technical writer and has also published straight history such as the
recent Justinian as H.N. Turteltaub. He
is married to novelist
Laura Frankos
and they have three
daughters: Alison, Rachel and Rebecca.
[miscellany]
(2/26/01)
Author of several histories including
The Bones of St. Peter
and The Hidden Life of Emily Dickinson, John Evangelist
Walsh was for many years a senior editor at Reader's
Digest, specializing in religious matters. He was born in 1927.
Specialist in the myths of the Mediterranean East, Marie Visconti
authors articles on ancient and medieval literature as well as
police procedural mysteries. Her protagonist, Helkias, brilliant lawyer of
Palmyra, follows in the paths of Perry Mason and Hercules Poirot. Her stated
goal is to imagine a story without betraying history.
(9/19/03)
Other books for young people by Jay Williams (born 1914) include
Bored to Death,
Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine,
Danny Dunn on the Ocean Floor,
Practical Princess
(
UK edition),
Seven at One Blow,
Stupid Marco, and
The Good-For-Nothing Prince.
The author is said to have died in 1978.
(1/17/04)
Born April 9, 1901, German author Henry Winterfeld probably holds
the distinction,
at least for the moment, of being the most widely-translated
of all Roman mystery authors. He has written
several popular books for children, only three of which are set in
ancient Rome. Among the others are
Castaways in Lilliput
and
Trouble at Timpetill.
One of his Roman mystery novels has also been adapted as a play.
Henry Winterfeld died in 1990.
[excerpt][in Dutch][in English][in French][in Italian][in Japanese][in Norwegian][in Swedish][miscellany]
(3/17/98)
Scottish author David Wishart was born in 1952, received an MA
in classics at Edinburgh University and has taught Latin and Greek.
He also authored
a fictional autobiography of the early Empire writer Virgilius in
I, Virgil
(hardcover;
paperback),
and a biography of an emperor as seen through the eyes of his Adviser
of Taste in
Nero
(hardcover;
paperback).
Discover more about David Wishart at his
web page
at the James Thin Bookseller website.
[miscellany]
(3/17/98)
James Yaffe is the author of a number of plays, one of which
has been produced on Broadway, as well as a dozen novels. He
was one of the first and youngest mystery writers discovered by
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, his first story being
published at the tender age of fifteen. He has written a great
number of detective stories since then. Born in 1927, the most
recent report is that James Yaffe teaches at a university
in Colorado Springs where he lives with his wife and three children.
(11/4/97)
The author was born in Wels, Austria, and studied history and art
history. She lives in Düsseldorf, where she has worked as a
newspaper editor, and has written several books about local history,
a mystery novel set in the 19th century and a medieval mystery story.
(10/10/97)
