TYRANT: FUNERAL GAMES. Christian Cameron, Orion £14. 99.

THE third novel in the ongoing Tyrant saga. The warrior Kineas of Athens is dead, killed in battle, and his widow Srayanka, a Sakje warrior in her own right, is murdered whilst she brokers a treaty with a rival king.

Their 12-year-old twins, Melitta and Satyrus, go on the run as their kingdom is plundered, protected only by their Spartan teacher and a wrestling coach from Greece.

The whole known world is in turmoil as generals and potentates fight over the empire that the late Alexander the Great left behind. The twins head for Egypt where their father’s mercenary friends are fighting for Ptolemy. Both have vowed revenge on the killers of their mother and that one day they will return as rulers of the Bosphorus. Epic, breathtaking, brilliant and packed with action, adventure, battles and memorable characters.

DENIS KILCOMMONS