Davis, Lindsey

Saturnalia: A Marcus Didius Falco Novel (Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries)

The Silver Pigs: A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery (Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries)

Shadows in Bronze: A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery (Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries)

See Delphi and Die: A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery (Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries)

Scandal Takes a Holiday (Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries)

A Body in the Bath House

The 13th novel featuring Marcus Didius Falco finds the Roman P.I. in the midst of a home improve- ment that brings an unwanted 'visitor' to his bathhouse. Poor Marcus Didius Falco: The two shiftless contractors working on his new Roman bathhouse have left him with a horrible smell emanating from the below-ground furnace....and some gruesome site debris. Meanwhile, the king of the Atrebtes tribe in faraway Britannia is planning his own home improvements. But the spectacular Fishbourne Palace he is building is beset by numerous financial problems....not to mention the 'accidents' that seem to plague the construction site. Enter P.I. Falco to investigate the scene and make things right. But trouble starts anew when his favorite contractors from Rome appear on the scene, and Falco realizes that someone with murderous intentions is now after him......

One Virgin Too Many

Marcus Didius Falco is back in another lively first-century historical mystery. The Roman investigator, informer, and imperial spy's snappy patter, romantic leanings, strong sense of irony, and penchant for getting into interesting situations have won Lindsey Davis a growing number of fans. Flush with his earnings from an African adventure (Two for the Lions), Falco's just been rewarded for his service to the empire with an unusual bit of political patronage: he's been appointed to the largely ceremonial position of Procurator of the Sacred Poultry, meaning he's in charge of the care and feeding of a gaggle of sacred geese. This un-Falco-like upward mobility is an opportunity for Marcus to move his patrician wife, Helena Justina, and their toddler out of a tenement and into a home of their own. As much as Marcus scoffs at middle-class pretensions, he's not above leaving his seedy surroundings and providing his family with some of the finer things, if only to show his in-laws that he can. But when Helena's brother falls over a corpse that disappears before it can be identified, Falco tosses the geese some food and gets busy finding the connection between the dead man and a 6-year-old girl who's in line to be chosen as the new vestal virgin. That leads him into intrigue, danger, and a confrontation with a former vestal virgin that almost costs him his life. Well paced, with good dialogue, excellent plotting, and a cast of terrific characters surrounding Falco and Helena, including some familiar from earlier stories, One Virgin Too Many shows Davis in top form. Falco the family man is better company than ever. --Jane Adams

Marcus Didius Falco, the cynical, hard-boiled investigator from the rough end of Rome, is back from a difficult mission in North Africa. As a result of his hard work, Emperor Vespasian awards Falco with the title of Procurator of Poultry for the Senate and People of Rome, or keeper of the city's sacred geese. Not much of a salary, of course, but the title does give him a better standing with his in-laws. Now, all Falco wants is to spend time relaxing at home with his family. But there is no rest for Falco as he finds himself drawn into the world of the Roman religious cults...and the murder of a member of the Sacred Brotherhoods. And then there's the disappearance of the most likely new candidate for the Order of Vestal Virgins. Falco soon uncovers a sinister cover-up-and is too deeply involved to back away from the truth.

Marcus Didius Falco is a cynical, hard-boiled investigator from the rough end of Rome. He does a bit of everything, from political investigating to art-fraud work. But he never seems to make enough money to move his family out of a seedy tenement. But fresh from his adventure in Two for the Lions in North Africa, he finds new respectability. His efforts are rewarded when he is appointed to a post in the religious hierarchy of government cults and becomes keeper of the city's sacred geese. Now Falco wants nothing more than to spend time relaxing at home. But all too soon he finds himself caught up in the murder of a member of one of the sacred brotherhoods and the disappearance of the most likely new candidate for the Order of Vestal Virgins. Lindsey Davis's look at the complexities of Roman society and attitudes has rarely been so impressively on display as in this engrossing historical mystery.

The Iron Hand of Mars: A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery

"A seamless blending of humor, history, and adventure." Publishers Weekly
A detective novel of ancient Rome.
When wild Germanic troops rebel and a Roman general disappears, Emperor Vespasian turns to the one man he can trust: Marcus Didius Falco, Imperial Rome's answer to Columbo. Slipping undercover into Germania, Falco meets with disarray, torture, and murder in his quest to find a Druid priestess who alone can persuade the barbarians to embrace peace.

The Course of Honor

In ancient Rome, the career path for ambitious citizens who aspire to become senators is called "The Course of Honor." And this honorable course has an unbreakable rule: A senator is forbidden to marry a slave. When the soldier Vespasian meets an interesting girl frying sausages in the imperial palace, he doesn't know that Caenis is immensely intelligent, or that she holds a position in the household of Antonia, daughter of Mark Anthony and sister-in-law of the Emperor. But soon he's in love, struggling against a world that rejects his lover. And as emperor after emperor plays out deadly, seductive games of lust and conquest, no one envisions that a country-born army man might win the throne-no one except a slave girl who observes the bizarre fortunes of an imperial city and begins a daring course of honor of her own.

This novel tells the sweeping story of the ascendancy of the Emperor Vespasian, the impecunious son of a provincial senator who finally brought peace to Rome after years of fighting during the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, and the year of the Four Emperors. It is also the story of the forbidden love between Emperor Vespasian and his mistress, Antonia Caenis, a slave working for Claudius's mother.

Venus in Copper

"Delectably funny...A novel that gives new meaning to the term 'classic detective fiction.'"
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
In 70 A.D. in ancient Rome, no one is a saint. Or so thinks Marcus Didius Falco, a private investigator first introduced in the award-winning SILVER PIGS, who's trying to prevent a murder before it happens. When every man a woman marries dies, Falco knows there's smoke and fire--and he'll stop at nothing to untangle the Gordion knot that proves it.