Books to Look Forward to From Atlantic Books and Corvus

The Praetorian Guard have proclaimed Claudius Emperor – but his position is precarious.  To secure power, Claudius’ freedmen must manufacture a quick victory for their new Emperor.  They call on Vespasian to retrieve the Eagle of the Seventeenth, lost in Germania nearly forty years before.  With a band of cavalry, Vespasian and his brother try to pick up the trail.  But someone is determined to sabotage Vespasian’s mission.  In search of the Eagle, pursued by barbarians, Vespasian will battle his way to the shores of Britannia.  Yet can he escape his own Emperor’s wrath?  Rome’s Fallen Eagle is by Robert Fabbri and is due to be published in September 2013.

The Magus of Hay is by Phil Rickman and is due to be published in November 2013.  A man’s body is found below a waterfall.  It looks like suicide or an accidental drowning – until his home is investigated.  The police send for Merrily Watkins, the Diocese of Hereford’s official advisor on the paranormal.  It is nearly forty years since Hay was declared an independent state, seen at the time as a publicity scam by a self-styled king.  But a dark design was forming, creating a hidden history of murder and ritual-magic.  It’s a situation that will take Merrily Watkins – alone for the first time in years – to the edge of madness.

The Amber Amulet is by Craig Silvey and is due to be published in August 2013.  Meet twelve-year-old Liam McKenzie, who patrols his suburban neighbourhood as the Masked Avenger – a superhero with powers so potent not even, he can fully comprehend their extent.  Along with his sidekick, Richie the Power Beagle, he protects the people of Franklin Street from chaos, mayhem, evil and low tyre pressure – but can he save them from sadness?

A new stand-alone historical thriller from the author of the Inspector Troy series, moving from London during the Blitz to divided post-war Berlin.  John Holderness, known to the women in his life as ‘Wilderness’, comes of age during World War II in Stepney, East London, breaking into houses with his grandfather.  After the war, Wilderness is recruited as MI5’s resident ‘cat burglar’ and finds himself in Berlin, involved with schemes in the booming black market that put both him and his relationships in danger.  In 1963 it is a most unusual and lucrative request that persuades Wilderness to return – to smuggle someone under the Berlin Wall and out of East Germany.  But this final scheme may prove to be one challenge too far…  Then We Take Berlin is a gripping, meticulously researched and richly detailed historical thriller – a moving story of espionage and war, and people caught up in the most tumultuous events of the twenty-first century.  Then We Take Berlin is by John Lawton and is due to be published in November 2013.