Vita & the Gladiator

A rip-roaring Roman mystery from Historical Association Young Quills Award-winning author Ally Sherrick. PRAISE FOR BLACK POWDER – WINNER OF THE HISTORIAL ASSOCIATION YOUNG QUILLS AWARD: ‘ … a wonderfully explosive adventure set in the turbulent year of the gunpowder plot in Black Powder with impossibly divided loyalties.’ JULIA GOLDING, AUTHOR OF THE DIAMOND OF DRURY LANE ‘With its constant reversals and twists and turns, Tom’s story is almost as complex as the pliot and counter-plot of the Gunpowder Treason itself …

The writing is lively and the pace never flags.’ HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY Vita longs to write the plays that she steals off to watch – but as the daughter of a high-born Roman, her only future is marriage. When her father is murdered, everything changes. She escapes with her life – only to end up a slave, sharing a cell with a fierce gladiator, Brea, and her wolf.

But when Vita and Brea discover they have a common enemy, they know they must stnd together for truth and justice … A rip-roaring adventure set in Roman London from the rising queen of middle-grade historical fiction, Ally Sherrick Vita, nicknamed ‘Little Owl’ by her father, is an unlikely hero – but when her father is murdered she has to uncover the truth, even if it means finding unlikely friends Themes of deceit, storytelling and fighting justice