Stay out of trouble. Though this is Marik’s mantra, he rarely seems able to follow it. Having escaped a brutal civil war in his native South, the former soldier now roams the distant North, trying to forget his past and forge some kind of future. Marik suspects he is paying the price for the moment of weakness that caused him to flee his comrades and family and everything he knew. Because however hard he tries, intrigue and danger are never far away..… After several abrupt turns of fate, Marik survives a terrifying shipwreck and washes up on a distant shore. He finds himself in the Salka Delta, an isolated region of islands and marshes. Here, a mercenary named Reverrik has enslaved the local people and Marik is soon recruited by a tiny band of rebels. As well as spies, traitors and outlandish creatures, he also faces the mighty Hammerhand, a giant enforcer feared by all. Staying out of trouble is never easy.
Author
Nick was born in Norwich in 1974. A keen reader from a young age, he graduated from Enid Blyton to Douglas Hill and JRR Tolkien, and from there to Ian Fleming, Michael Crichton and C.J. Sansom. After three years studying in Brighton, he travelled to Nepal where he worked at an orphanage and trekked to Mount Everest. After qualifying as a history teacher in 2000, he worked for five years in England before taking up a post at an international school in Warsaw. Nick had completed a few screenplays and a futuristic thriller before being inspired to try historical fiction after reading C.J. Sansom’s Dissolution: “Researching the Roman army and life in the third century was a fascinating but time-consuming project and the book went through many drafts before arriving at its final form. I had always intended Cassius to be a somewhat atypical protagonist and when I came across the research about the Roman ‘secret service’, I knew I’d found an ideal vocation for my reluctant hero.” If he’s not writing he might be found at the cinema, in a pub or playing football. Nick is represented by the David Grossman Literary Agency (general@dglal.co.uk) Follow Nick on Twitter @randomrome or Agent of Rome on Facebook.
