MOSAIC - The Pavement That Walked

1941: the height of the Luftwaffe's ‘Blitz’ on Kingston-upon-Hull and the biggest mystery in Romano-British archaeology starts when mosaic floors from a Roman villa are found in nearby stone quarries. When archaeologists try and recover them in 1948 the very first disappears overnight. Who took it no-one knows but even today the locals still blame the U.S. Air Force. In the devastated streets of a blitzed city ex-combat flyer Michael Tryton (now Detective Inspector in the Hull City Murder Squad) is soon on the case of American archaeologist Zuleika Macsen. Another love lies deeper, haunting his every step. Interleaved with Tryton's enquiry is Flavius Candidus; military pensioner and expendable civil servant. Arriving in 337 AD at Petuaria Civitas Parisorum on a covert mission to check out local loyalties, his plans soon change on meeting the ‘Tyche’ - spiritual emblem to the tribe and wife of powerful villa-owner Marcus Januarius. Each man driven by duty, their careful investigations are derailed by fascinating women and recurring events as two strong-minded servants of declining Empire confront powerful vested interest in a climax all their undoing.