Consul's Daughter
by
Mark Knowles
Book Synopsis:
Rome AD 205: Tribune Ambrosius Milo is the only man in his cohort who enjoys the night watch. Somewhere in the darkness is the man who murdered his wife, and one day he will catch him. But one cold February morning, the fog lifts to reveal the dead body of a young girl on the banks of the Tiber. Led by the quick-tempered Ambrosius, the watchmen track a grim murder scene and locate several seemingly vital clues. But there is trouble afoot, for this was no ordinary young girl She is a consul's daughter, and when her distraught parents come to claim the body, it has mysteriously vanished from the Watch House crypt...From the intrigues within the Imperial household to the mean streets of Ancient Rome, The Consul's Daughter is a red-blooded crime novel based on true events and documented characters.
Author Mark Knowles
Genre: Historical Fiction-Murder Mystery, Crime/Thriller
Formats: Paperback & eBook
Published by: Endeavor Press
ISBN-13 978-1973216827
Pub. Date: November 3, 2017
Number of pages: 343
Content Warning: 18+ for brief nudity and violence
Purchase at: Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk
Interview with Mark Knowles:
1. How long did it take you to write this book?
Getting the story to the point where my agent was happy to try and place it took about 2.5 years but, to be honest, I was tinkering about with the script right up until the publication deadline. Though this is probably very bad practice I suspect I'm not the only writer ever to have done so!
2. Did you do a lot of research in order to write it? You said it's a true story. Can you explain the characters to me?
Yes, a good deal of research went into it. My background gave me a good foundation. (I have a Classics degree) so I had a bit of a head start in terms of knowing what the political situation was in Rome in AD 205, and I had a good sense of the topography of Rome itself. What I didn't know too much about, though, was exactly what the vigiles-the ancient night watch - did, or how they were recruited, equipt an organized. I spent a lot of happy hours in the British Library in London, and I do mean a lot because that institution is a cafe, museum, exhibition center and generally a great social hub. I had access there to a lot of out-of-print books and academic volumes. The other main source of research was a very big book by a French scholar called Robert Sablayrolles. It took a fair bit of time to translate it-perhaps a month- but it was well worth the effort. Amongst other things he painstakingly noted the name of every watchman in every cohort for which inscriptions. I cherry-picked names for characters from these lists to add an extra layer of authenticity.
The plot is indeed based on a true story. In AD 205, the emperor, Septimius Severus, of North African descent had been on the throne for more than a decade and was making plans for his sons, Caracalla and Geta, to succeed him. Caracalla, it seems, was a jealous and spiteful man: he ultimately had his brother, whom he saw as a rival, killed. Moreover, both he and his mother, Julia Domna, had become very wary about the growing power and influence of Severus's right-hand man, Gaius Plautianus. Plautianus was the Praetorian Prefect, the commander of the emperor's elite troops, and effectively the second most powerful man in the empire. Despite his family's concerns, the sources suggest that Severus genuinely liked and respected Plautianus. It seemed that in early AD 205, a plot came to light (or was fabricated by Caracalla) which provided the excuse needed for Caracalla to have Plautianus executed.
All of this provided me with a ready-made storyline and one that is only too familiar in Roman history; the imperial palace could be a pretty duplicitous and deadly place! The opening scenes which patrolling night watchmen by a young girls body by the Tiber, who turns out to be Caracalla's mistress, were based on an Incident I dealt with one cold morning when I was a police officer. We don't know for certain if Caracalla had a mistress (I use creative license and made her up) but it seems quite likely given that his arranged marriage to Plautianus' daughter was a total disaster.
3. I noticed you worked in law enforcement. Do you still, or did you quit to become a writer?
I left the police in 2015 after a decade of mainly front-line work, but it was to become a teacher. Writing is something I do in between reading stories to my daughter, changing her nappies and trying to catch her whenever she scuttles away.
4. What advice can you give to people who want to become a published author?
I would definitely recommend the traditional path of trying to find an agent in order to find a publisher because it can become a pretty bewildering industry otherwise. This is what I did. That said, there's probably never been a better time for self- or assisted- publishing. Either way, however, there's no substitute for putting in the hard yards and exercising the brain like you would any other part of the body in order to chum out the words and continually improve how they are expressed. Also, read widely both within and outside your chosen genre. Writers should be like magpies.
5. What does your typical day of writing consist of? A day in the life of Mark Knowles.
There is no typical day, not anymore. When I was in the police, I tried to make the best of working sometimes very antisocial hours. I got very little done when I was off duty so I had to make most of batches of rest days, which actually worked quite well once I fueled up on coffee. Now that I'm teaching, I have to make the most of holidays because I'm not as good as I should be at writing every evening, especially not with family commitments, marking and planning in the evenings, and sports fixtures at the weekends.
6. What kinds of books do you like to read?
I'm an unashamed, Ancient History geek so I read anything by Mary Beard, Tom Holland, Adrian Goldsworthy, and the like: There's always something new to soak up in their books. I don't read as much historical fiction as I once did but I have a soft spot for the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser and pretty much everything by Robert Harris. I like a good (auto)biography, especially of sportsmen and women, war heroes, adventurers and anything about World War 1. Unfortunately, I'll nearly be finished with all of Lee Childs books: Jack Reacher is just an outstanding creation!
7. Why The Consul's Daughter?
I've already mentioned that I became fascinated with the night watch when I started researching them, and it became a bit of an obsession trying to recreate their lives given the job I was doing at the time. What really galvanized the process was something I read at about 6 a.m. when I'd been a duty for a 12-hour shift and was waiting for the early turn officers to take over. The article mentions a graffito (which sadly no longer survives) scratched onto one of the walls of a watch barracks. It said lassus sum successorem date, which means "I'm shattered: send my replacement." Reading that simple complaint really gave me a sense of connection to these exhausted men. Despite the passing of nearly 2000 years, some things never change!
What I wanted to do in writing The Consul's Daughter was to create a really evocative, atmospheric and plausible crime thriller that fuses historical fiction with personal experience; to give it the human touch, if you like. If readers can identify with any one of these aspirations I'd feel it had been a job worth doing.
8. Who is your favorite character in the book? Who is your least favorite?
Favorite, the Deputy Praetorian Prefect Brutus. I really enjoyed giving him just a sliver of humanity beneath the arrogance and bombast. Ambrosius Milo, the leading character, is also - despite his quick temper and occasional selfishness- a fundamentally decent guy. My least favorite would be Caracalla himself. Again, it was a pleasure to write his lines as I don't think he- or this period, in fact- had been covered before in historical fiction. He typifies the vitriolic and nasty 'prince' that all roman imperial dynasties seem to have had. You only have to take one look at that angry frown of his on the surviving portrait busts to begin t believe the very negative impression we get of him from ancient writers. He wasn't unusual in the ancient world for regarding life so cheaply but he took it to extremes by murdering his own brother and taking measures to remove his name and even his face from statues, inscriptions, and paintings. The Severan dynasty to which he belonged was also responsible for a particular bloody persecution of Christians. In short, the man seemed to have had no redeeming features to speak of...other than providing great material to write about.
9. What plans do you have for future books?
I'm enjoying (when I get the chance!) writing the sequel to this book, the working title for which is Ascension Day which features one of the great mythical -or perhaps historical-relics of the distant past. I also had an idea for a novel which involved Winston Churchhill and some of the descendants of great heroes of old (set in WWII, obviously) but my agent wasn't so convinced. Not that I'll let it put me off for good!
10. What do you like to do in your spare time?
I'm an avid sports fan and play cricket in the summer for my staff team in a league that is far too good for us! I used to play a lot of rugby but have to be content with coaching it for the time being. Most of my spare time these days is spent very happily with friends, my wife an daughter, who has an insatiable appetite for books and stories...
Author Bio:
Mark Knowles read degrees in Classic and Management Studies at Downing College, Cambridge. After a decade of working as a frontline officer and Supervisor within the Metropolitan Police Services, he became head of Classics at a school in Harrogate. He is a particular fan of experimental archeology and rowed on the reconstructed Ancient Athenian trireme 'Olympius' during its last sea trials in Greece in 1994.
1. How long did it take you to write this book?
Getting the story to the point where my agent was happy to try and place it took about 2.5 years but, to be honest, I was tinkering about with the script right up until the publication deadline. Though this is probably very bad practice I suspect I'm not the only writer ever to have done so!
2. Did you do a lot of research in order to write it? You said it's a true story. Can you explain the characters to me?
Yes, a good deal of research went into it. My background gave me a good foundation. (I have a Classics degree) so I had a bit of a head start in terms of knowing what the political situation was in Rome in AD 205, and I had a good sense of the topography of Rome itself. What I didn't know too much about, though, was exactly what the vigiles-the ancient night watch - did, or how they were recruited, equipt an organized. I spent a lot of happy hours in the British Library in London, and I do mean a lot because that institution is a cafe, museum, exhibition center and generally a great social hub. I had access there to a lot of out-of-print books and academic volumes. The other main source of research was a very big book by a French scholar called Robert Sablayrolles. It took a fair bit of time to translate it-perhaps a month- but it was well worth the effort. Amongst other things he painstakingly noted the name of every watchman in every cohort for which inscriptions. I cherry-picked names for characters from these lists to add an extra layer of authenticity.
The plot is indeed based on a true story. In AD 205, the emperor, Septimius Severus, of North African descent had been on the throne for more than a decade and was making plans for his sons, Caracalla and Geta, to succeed him. Caracalla, it seems, was a jealous and spiteful man: he ultimately had his brother, whom he saw as a rival, killed. Moreover, both he and his mother, Julia Domna, had become very wary about the growing power and influence of Severus's right-hand man, Gaius Plautianus. Plautianus was the Praetorian Prefect, the commander of the emperor's elite troops, and effectively the second most powerful man in the empire. Despite his family's concerns, the sources suggest that Severus genuinely liked and respected Plautianus. It seemed that in early AD 205, a plot came to light (or was fabricated by Caracalla) which provided the excuse needed for Caracalla to have Plautianus executed.
All of this provided me with a ready-made storyline and one that is only too familiar in Roman history; the imperial palace could be a pretty duplicitous and deadly place! The opening scenes which patrolling night watchmen by a young girls body by the Tiber, who turns out to be Caracalla's mistress, were based on an Incident I dealt with one cold morning when I was a police officer. We don't know for certain if Caracalla had a mistress (I use creative license and made her up) but it seems quite likely given that his arranged marriage to Plautianus' daughter was a total disaster.
3. I noticed you worked in law enforcement. Do you still, or did you quit to become a writer?
I left the police in 2015 after a decade of mainly front-line work, but it was to become a teacher. Writing is something I do in between reading stories to my daughter, changing her nappies and trying to catch her whenever she scuttles away.
4. What advice can you give to people who want to become a published author?
I would definitely recommend the traditional path of trying to find an agent in order to find a publisher because it can become a pretty bewildering industry otherwise. This is what I did. That said, there's probably never been a better time for self- or assisted- publishing. Either way, however, there's no substitute for putting in the hard yards and exercising the brain like you would any other part of the body in order to chum out the words and continually improve how they are expressed. Also, read widely both within and outside your chosen genre. Writers should be like magpies.
5. What does your typical day of writing consist of? A day in the life of Mark Knowles.
There is no typical day, not anymore. When I was in the police, I tried to make the best of working sometimes very antisocial hours. I got very little done when I was off duty so I had to make most of batches of rest days, which actually worked quite well once I fueled up on coffee. Now that I'm teaching, I have to make the most of holidays because I'm not as good as I should be at writing every evening, especially not with family commitments, marking and planning in the evenings, and sports fixtures at the weekends.
6. What kinds of books do you like to read?
I'm an unashamed, Ancient History geek so I read anything by Mary Beard, Tom Holland, Adrian Goldsworthy, and the like: There's always something new to soak up in their books. I don't read as much historical fiction as I once did but I have a soft spot for the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser and pretty much everything by Robert Harris. I like a good (auto)biography, especially of sportsmen and women, war heroes, adventurers and anything about World War 1. Unfortunately, I'll nearly be finished with all of Lee Childs books: Jack Reacher is just an outstanding creation!
7. Why The Consul's Daughter?
I've already mentioned that I became fascinated with the night watch when I started researching them, and it became a bit of an obsession trying to recreate their lives given the job I was doing at the time. What really galvanized the process was something I read at about 6 a.m. when I'd been a duty for a 12-hour shift and was waiting for the early turn officers to take over. The article mentions a graffito (which sadly no longer survives) scratched onto one of the walls of a watch barracks. It said lassus sum successorem date, which means "I'm shattered: send my replacement." Reading that simple complaint really gave me a sense of connection to these exhausted men. Despite the passing of nearly 2000 years, some things never change!
What I wanted to do in writing The Consul's Daughter was to create a really evocative, atmospheric and plausible crime thriller that fuses historical fiction with personal experience; to give it the human touch, if you like. If readers can identify with any one of these aspirations I'd feel it had been a job worth doing.
8. Who is your favorite character in the book? Who is your least favorite?
Favorite, the Deputy Praetorian Prefect Brutus. I really enjoyed giving him just a sliver of humanity beneath the arrogance and bombast. Ambrosius Milo, the leading character, is also - despite his quick temper and occasional selfishness- a fundamentally decent guy. My least favorite would be Caracalla himself. Again, it was a pleasure to write his lines as I don't think he- or this period, in fact- had been covered before in historical fiction. He typifies the vitriolic and nasty 'prince' that all roman imperial dynasties seem to have had. You only have to take one look at that angry frown of his on the surviving portrait busts to begin t believe the very negative impression we get of him from ancient writers. He wasn't unusual in the ancient world for regarding life so cheaply but he took it to extremes by murdering his own brother and taking measures to remove his name and even his face from statues, inscriptions, and paintings. The Severan dynasty to which he belonged was also responsible for a particular bloody persecution of Christians. In short, the man seemed to have had no redeeming features to speak of...other than providing great material to write about.
9. What plans do you have for future books?
I'm enjoying (when I get the chance!) writing the sequel to this book, the working title for which is Ascension Day which features one of the great mythical -or perhaps historical-relics of the distant past. I also had an idea for a novel which involved Winston Churchhill and some of the descendants of great heroes of old (set in WWII, obviously) but my agent wasn't so convinced. Not that I'll let it put me off for good!
10. What do you like to do in your spare time?
I'm an avid sports fan and play cricket in the summer for my staff team in a league that is far too good for us! I used to play a lot of rugby but have to be content with coaching it for the time being. Most of my spare time these days is spent very happily with friends, my wife an daughter, who has an insatiable appetite for books and stories...
Author Bio:
Mark Knowles read degrees in Classic and Management Studies at Downing College, Cambridge. After a decade of working as a frontline officer and Supervisor within the Metropolitan Police Services, he became head of Classics at a school in Harrogate. He is a particular fan of experimental archeology and rowed on the reconstructed Ancient Athenian trireme 'Olympius' during its last sea trials in Greece in 1994.
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