Moving on to Book 5 we know what we can expect in the series, and fortunately this outing we are not beaten over the head with the plot to kill our hero. Backstory of that plot is tendered (where it probably shouldn't have been) or should have been given us much earlier. For a secret plot with reasons that are to be kept secret not only does all romans who we encounter seem to know of it, but they know of it at the very edges of the empire which gives us the truth that it is not secret and that every person we are going to meet in the story knows why our hero is trying to hide his identity and why every can see right through that artifice.

Which takes away an entire star rating and tells us once more that Riches should stick to the main plot line of each vignette. Further, engaging in credible plot devices for marching a couple cohorts all over Europe could be employed. Cato and Macro, since they are detached officers, have much more credibility in the hands of Scarrow as those heroes march all over the empire. Here in Empire you have to suspend your disbelief many times for not only SuperComicBook Hero Marcus, our protagonist, smarter than any other officer, despite his just being past boyhood, and all the other baggage he has been given by Riches.

So, look past that. Riches once you ignore why the Cohort has marched 1000s of miles, finds a villain to fight. Does it well, and is ready to march on. The mistake here is to make our heroes confront Villains from all over. There were enough in Brittania to milk that for many books, as Scarrow showed in his series before moving on.

Perhaps an editor who could think through this plot holes could have suggested a better way to handle things. Or perhaps, smaller sequences with different characters acting across the empire. Not just one protagonist whose entire being makes for him to be a square peg trying to be jammed into a round hole. ( )