Book description
In the long, hot Roman Summer of AD74, Marcus Didius Falco, private
informer and spare-time poet, gives a reading for his family and
friends. Things get out of hand as usual. The event is taken over by
Aurelius Chrysippus, a wealthy Greek banker and patron to a group of
struggling writers, who offers to publish Falco's work - a golden
opportunity that rapidly palls. A visit to the
Chrysippusscriptorium implicates him in a gruesome literary
murder so when Petronius Longus, the over-worked vigiles enquiry
chief, commissions him to investigate, Falco is forced to accept.
Lindsey Davis' twelfth novel wittily explores Roman publishing and
banking, taking us from the jealousies of authorship and the mire of
patronage, to the darker financial world, where default can have fatal consequences...
Lindsey Davis has written over twenty historical novels, beginning
with The Course of Honour. Her bestselling mystery series
features laid-back First Century detective Marcus Didius Falco and his
partner Helena Justina, plus friends, relations, pets and bitter enemy
the Chief Spy.
After an English degree at Oxford University, Lindsey joined the
Civil Service but became a professional author in 1989. Her books are
translated into many languages and have been dramatized on BBC Radio
4. Her many prizes include the Premio Colosseo, awarded by the
Mayor of Rome 'for enhancing the image of Rome', the Sherlock award
for Falco as Best Comic Detective and the Crimewriters' Association
Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement. She was born in
Birmingham but now lives in Greenwich, London.
Her most recent books are Master and God followed by The
Ides of April.
