Penguin Books Australia

Victor Radcliffe, prominent Melbourne businessman, on the committee of the Carlton Football Club, lies murdered in a deserted warehouse—the bayonet wound suggests a trained killer, but Police Inspector James Maclaine, and his smart-talking sidekick Harry Devlin, are having trouble tracking down the killer.

From the bestselling author of The Egyptologist and Prague comes a mesmerising, provocative novel.

In Victorian London, lowly clerk Constance believes she has found her ultimate husband and protector in Joseph Barton. But after three miscarriages and the troubled birth of their daughter, Angelica, things begin to change. Constance starts to fear her husband's intentions, his potentially murderous hatred...

'Enthralling' Daily Express

Gaius Petreius Ruso, doctor to the Legions, is about to return home to Gaul after many years' absence. Little does he realise the letter summoning him back has been forged, nor that the sunny Mediterranean lifestyle conceals a dark threat lurking at every corner. His family are in horrific debt to dangerous men and when the principal creditor, Severus, is poisoned in the...

'An addictively escapist series. Ruso will be a hit'
THE TIMES

Britannia, 117 AD

Primitive, cold, and a touch damp

Welcome to the most remote corner of the Roman Empire

For army doctor Gaius Petreius Ruso, this overseas posting is no picnic. He has vast debts, a slave girl too clever for her own good and an overbearing hospital administrator to cope with . . . not to mention a serial killer stalking the local bar. Washed-out dancing girls are being washed-up with...

'In the worthy footsteps of Lindsey Davis and Steven Saylor there now comes Downie's Ruso'
GUARDIAN

WIND-SWEPT NORTH BRITANNIA, WHERE THE NATIVES ARE IN THE MOOD FOR KILLING . . . 

When the ransom payment vanishes in the wilds of Wales – a country of rebellion...

'One of Britain's best writers of psychological suspense'
The Times

1786, Jerusalem College, Cambridge.

The ghost of murdered Sylvia Whichcote is rumoured to be haunting Jerusalem after disturbed fellow commoner Frank Oldershaw claims to have seen the dead woman prowling the grounds.

Move over, Holmes, the ladies have arrived!

'Thieves respect property.  They merely wish the property to become their property that they may the more perfectly respect it.' - G. K. Chesterton