When I first noticed Blood of a Gladiator in my eReaderIQ feed, I figured it had to be a Simon Scarrow title. Imagine my surprise (!!!), when it turned out to be the first book in a new historical series by Jennifer Ashley, whose Captain Gabriel Lacey series, written using the pen name Ashley Gardner, I’ve quite liked. That series started out traditionally published, and then Gardner started self-pubbing it, but I’ve liked all of the ones I’ve read, which is most (maybe all) of them.
I have not read Blood of a Gladiator, but it’s free right now in the US, and Ashley has done well self-pubbing her other series, and if I wait until I have read it, it probably won’t be free anymore. So, if you are sensitive to self-pubbed books, skip the rest of this post… (But it’s free, so if you try it and hate it, just delete it!) And, the description reminds me a little bit of David Wishart’s political Marcus Corvinus books, which are my favorites among that series, so I have my fingers crossed.
Death Below Stairs is the first in Jennifer Ashley’s Kat Holloway/Below Stairs mystery series. It has dropped to £1.99 at Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06Y4RCLQX
Blood of a Gladiator is free again, and this time, also in the UK. The links in the OP are still good for the US, and here’s the link for Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087C9MR2S