London: Headline (Hodder), (1999) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's first crime novel, and her first novel written under this name. Set in the late 2nd century A.D. in Britain, the northernmost province in the Roman Empire. "Libertus, a freedman and pavement-maker, has been searching for his wife for years. He hears of a possible sighting at a slave-market a day away when his patron asks for his help - a burned body has been found and a slave is missing" - he cannot say no. 275 pp. A rather hard to find first edition of the first book in this long-running and highly praised series. ISBN: 0-747222622.