Dark, complex, and unexpectedly tender…
In Bush’s latest novel, a weary molossus war dog returns home to find the empire he fought for rotting from within. It’s AD 64, and the persecution of Christians is in full swing. The city is dangerous, its loyalties transactional, and Cassius, once a hero, now aimless, is adrift. Then he meets Livia, a gentle cat with ties to the Christian underground. Their bond becomes the fragile thread holding Cassius to a moral path, even as the world around him descends into chaos.
Bush leans hard into classical allegory but swaps togas for fur and fangs. The animals aren’t just stand-ins: they’re loaded symbols. Cassius, a representative of an older, nobler code, stands in sharp relief against the pugnaces hounds of the praetorian guard: brutish, loyal only to the Emperor, and bristling with menace. The emperor is part madman, part ringmaster; his daughter, Lady Flavia, is all silk and teeth. The prose is sharp and rich. Bush layers drama with grit, and moral gravity with the occasional wink to myth. The result is a bloodstained tragedy where beasts speak, fight, and fall with all-too-human consequence. A must-read.
Pub date April 17, 2025
ISBN 979-8280301375
Price $6.95 (USD) Paperback, $2.99 Kindle edition, $0.00 Kindle Unlimited
