Ina city held together by fear, one man fights for the truth ... Rome, 64 AD: ruled by the crazy emperor Nero and devastated by raging fires, the city struggles to rise from the ashes. But now a new threat - darker even than the emperor's crumbling sanity, begins to plague the Roman people. And Quintus Julius Marcellus is the only man who can stop it. Someone - or something - is killing Rome's elite citizens ina terrifyingly brutal and violant way. It's the hardest case Julius has ever faced - and if he doesn't solve it to the emperor's liking, it could be his last. The odds are stacked against success as Julius is drawn into a whirl of political intrigue, battling jealous rivals, Nero's paranoia, and - as if that weren't enough - struggling against the unbeatable force of falling in love ...