Sean Gabb

My dear friend Richard Blake has found this review of his novel “Terror of Constantinople” in The Mail on Sunday for the 3rd January 2010. For some reason, this was overlooked by Hodder & Stoughton!

The Terror Of Constantinople

by Richard Blake Hodder £7.99

£7.99 inc p&p (08451550713)

The second title in Richard Blake’s superior series of historical novels sees his resourceful young hero Aelric dispatched from Rome to Constantinople on a top-secret mission. It’s 610 AD and while Rome may have been reduced to a shadow of her former glory, the eastern capital is bursting at the seams with wealth, exotic splendour ñ and danger. The emperor Phocas has instituted a reign of terror to rival Caligula’s and, with civil war looming, Aelric will need his wits to survive. Blake’s colloquial style sometimes makes his characters sound like football yobs in search of a punch-up but he knows how to deliver a fast-paced story and his grasp of the period is impressively detailed.