In this "stunning novel" (bestselling author Alison Weir), Annelise Freisenbruch presents the great new heroine of Roman historical fiction, who must navigate the male-dominated courts of law in her quest to uncover a sinister plot to overthrow the Republic.

As RIVALS OF THE REPUBLIC begins, Roman high society is humming with gossip about the sudden, suspicious suicide of a Roman senator. Shortly afterward, the body of a Vestal Virgin is discovered in the river Tiber. When the Roman authorities turn a strangely blind eye to these crimes, Hortensia, the daughter of the capital's most celebrated lawyer, begins investigating a trail of murders that leads straight into the dark heart of Rome.

Defying her husband and her father and rebelling against the constraints imposed upon her sex, Hortensia plunges deeper into the corrupt underworld that lurks in the shadows cast by the city's all-powerful elite. When more key witnesses are silenced by an unkown mastermind, Hortensia is forced to seek an unconventional ally: Lucrio, an ex-gladiator with secrets of his own.

Using her supreme knowledge of the period and drawing from historical accounts of the daughter of famed Roman orator Hortensius Hortalus, Annelise Freisenbruch delivers a meticulously accurate and suspenseful story that will have readers gripped until the final, harrowing pages.

The body of a Vestal Virgin is found in the Tiber River, and soon after, a senator is found having bled to death in his bath. As Roman authorities turn a strangely blind eye, Hortensia, the daughter of the capital’s most celebrated orator, begins investigating this trail of murders that leads straight into the dark heart of Rome.

Despite her husband’s and father’s attempts to protect her, rebelling against the societal constraints to her sex, Hortensia plunges deeper into the corrupt underworld of the city. And only one man can save her from becoming the next victim: Lucrio, the ex-gladiator to whom she already owes her life. But Lucrio has secrets as well, and his past threatens to subsume both him and Hortensia.

RIVALS OF THE REPUBLIC is the exciting fiction debut from Roman historian and author Annelise Freisenbruch. Using her supreme knowledge of the period, Freisenbruch delivers a meticulously accurate and suspenseful mystery that will grip readers from beginning to end.