From Publishers Weekly
As the festive holiday of Saturnalia approaches in Davis's well-crafted 18th Roman historical (after 2006's
See Delphi and Die), informer Marcus Didius Falco receives an imperial commission from Emperor Vespasian to solve the murder of nobleman Sextus Gratianus Scaeva. The victim's brother-in-law was holding a valued captive, Veleda, a female German rebel leader who had caused plenty of problems for the Roman Empire. She somehow escaped at the same time the crime occurred, becoming the prime suspect in the process. Unconvinced that the mystery can be wrapped up neatly with the capture of the fugitive, Falco, aided as always by his astute and independent wife, Helena Justina, pursues other leads even as he hopes to find Veleda and prevent further political turmoil. The occasional anachronistic colloquial phrase jars a bit, but overall Davis does her usual sound job of bringing first-century Rome to life.
(May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
A rebellious German priestess and a murdered nobleman keep informer-investigator Marcus Didius Falco busy in Davis' eighteenth historical whodunit set in Rome in 76 CE. Falco fights crime in the morally depraved city at the pleasure of the emperor, a duty that becomes even more daunting during the season of debauchery known as Saturnalia. As the novel opens, German beauty Veleda (whom Falco first encountered in 1993's
The Iron Hand of Mars) has escaped house arrest around the same time young Gratianus Scaeva is found dead, his decapitated head floating in the atrium pool at his family's villa. Adding to Falco's woes is news that his married brother-in-law (who happens to be one of Veleda's former lovers) has gone missing. As always, the shrewd and outspoken Falco is helped by his headstrong wife, Helena Justina, and hindered by nefarious Anacrites, Rome's Chief Spy. Davis serves up a huge cast of characters and colorful descriptions of daily life in first-century Rome, details sure to please readers with an affinity for ancient history.
Allison BlockCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved