Road to Rome

January 10: “As they stamped their feet against the cold, they waited for the trumpeters to summon them to action. To shoulder arms, to advance — to cross the Rubicon.”  

‘I Plunged’

January 9: “My body whispered: ‘You cannot possibly swim five miles in such a current,’ but Inspiration shouted: ‘This is the Hellespont….’ ”  

Phantoms of Breslau

In the latest chapter of Marek Krajewski’s arrestingly inventive noir series, the murder of four naked sailors on a secluded island puts Polish detective Eberhard Mock back on the case.  Decadent detection at its finest.

Leaving the Sea

The iconoclastic Ben Marcus (The Flame Alphabet) takes flight in bold short stories of cruise ship infidelity, obsessive inter-office relations, and portraits of families devoted and otherwise.