The Eagle's Prey [Hardcover]

Scarrow's characters ring true, as do his on and off duty activities. I'd read these to my Latin classes, except his legionaries talk like legionaries. Nevertheless, they are on my recommended list for students, and anyone interested in the Roman army. Cliched as it sounds, this is most assuredly a page-turner I didn't want to put down.

Scarrow's fifth Macro and Cato installment, `The Eagle's Prey' shows a maturity in his writing that has not been in evidence in the previous four. It is also a trifle less formulaic as Macro and Cato decide to take a stance outside the usual regimented legion lifestyle and this allows their characters to flourish. In this latest installment we find General Plautius preparing to force the British army, led by Caratacus, King of the Catuvellaunians, into a trap at the Third Tamesis ford. The third cohort of Vespasian's II Augusta is commanded to get to and hold the ford in case the Britons move to cross it before the trap can be sprung. Sounds simple.

The third cohort has a new ex-praetorian, Chief Centurion, Maximius who is insecure and condescending to Cato, seeing polots and conspiracies whererever he turns. The other five centurions, Antonius, Tullius, Felix, Macro, and Cato are pitted against each other as his style of leadership forments a growing anger.

Fairly immediately the tone for the entire novel is set as Maximius diverts from his goal to reach the ford to hund down a band of Britons who have sacked the Batavian Fort (commanded by Maximius' friend) and the resultant debacle means Macro and his century fighting a heroic mid stream battle against the entire British army as the rest of the cohort arrive too late to prevent Caratacus escaping. A clear failure on Maximius part to do as ordered. As Maximius blames everyone else other than himself and with the reappearance of Narcissus, Claudis' freedman, means that only decimation of the third cohort will suffice.

Cato draws a black pebble and is sentenced to death. What ensues is a political struggle as Vespasian roundly refuses to condemn the men, drawing Plautius' wrath and Macro and Figulus (Cato's optio) take mattes into their own hands by helping them escape into the marshes.

What follows is a test of Cato's leadership as he leads a slowly reducing number of men into the marshes that Caratacus is hiding in to scavenge and get captured by the Britons. In the meantime Maximius, Macro and the rest of the third cohort are ordered into the valley around the marsh to brutalise the framers in order to draw Caratacus out. The remainder is an enjoyable romp through first century Britain as Cato and and Macro survive their ordeals, capture Caratacus and manage to get away with Cato's death sentence and Marco gross insubordination until we reach a climatic moment in the series as they are feted in the success and end up on a British port with Vespasian to head back to Rome.

The series has reached a turning point with Scarrow ready to chance his two heroes in more unfamilar surroundings (as he indicates in the Author's Note) and it'll be fascinating to see what comes next in the adventures. What is blatantly clear however, is that this Norwich Unversity lecturer must keep writing these novels, even if it is detrimental to the time he spends lecturing...

Once again Scarrow pleases!!. Marco and Cato almost seem part of the family now that I have blasted through the first 5 books. Scarrow almost puts you in a time machine and...poof... You are now part of the secnd legion chasing the Druids and blue faced Britons led by Caraticus.