Double Daggers

James R. Clifford
Dan River Press (2006)
ISBN 0897542177
Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (10/06)

James R. Clifford has struck gold, or should I say silver denarius, with “Double Daggers,” a fast paced historical fiction.  This book has it all – drama, intrigue and historical facts.  The story is based around the EID MAR or Eids of March silver denarius that was ordered in 44 B.C. by Marcus Brutus after he delivered the final deathblow in the assassination of Julius Caesar.

The Senate murdered Julius Caesar because he was seen as a power hungry tyrant who had designs on becoming Emperor and doing away with the Republic.  Marcus Brutus, the son of Caesar’s mistress Servilia, had the coin minted to “commemorate the fall of a tyrant and the liberation of the Roman Republic.  Romans, thousands of years from now, will sing praise to our heroics when they hold this coin in their hand”.  The coin had double daggers on one side and the likeness of Brutus on the other.  The first coin was inscribed with the number 1 and delivered to Brutus. 

It turns out Brutus severely underestimated the power of Marc Antony to turn public praise for Caesar’s murder into outrage.  Brutus flees Rome to eastern Italy where he finds sympathy for his cause.  He builds a new army and goes to battle with Rome.  When all is lost for him he kills himself with the same knife he used on Julius Caesar.  Upon finding his dead body, Marc Antony placed this curse on him “Live by the sword, die by the sword.  You are truly a cursed man.  The evil one does cannot be undone.  Not even in death.”  Then he throws the EID MAR coin into the river. 

Flash forward to France in 1096 A.D., the time of the Crusades.  Michael Claudien, son of a wealthy landowner has become an unwilling crusader.  He and his brother Godfrey leave home to travel to Constantinople to join other Crusaders in the fight for Christianity in the Holy Land.  They stop in Belgrade on the way where Michael acquires the EID MAR coin in a game of Bones.  He does not believe that it is cursed and misfortune soon follows him. 

The story then takes you to Paris, France in June of 1940.  The Nazi Party has recently occupied the city of Paris.  Colonel Maxwell Von Studt, a close confidante to Adolph Hitler, is living the life he has always dreamed of.  Except for one thing, he has an obsession with Rome and the EID MAR coin.  Von Studt has learned that it is at the Louvre, and he steals it.  Things quickly go downhill for him and the Nazi Party and he soon follows the fate of his predecessors.

The final tale takes place in modern day New York City.  Completely self-obsessed and arrogant, Wall Street trader Jack Weston is living on top of the world.  He thinks he has everything until he sees the EID MAR coin at an auction and impulsively buys it.  That is where everything begins to go wrong for him….

Even the epilogue is unexpected in “Double Daggers” when the author ties all the owners of the EID MAR coin together in a very surprising way.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and hope to see more from this very talented author.  I would recommend it to history and adventure buffs.  

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