This tenth novel featuring Marcus Didius Falco puts the tough private eye in the lions’ den to investigate an extraordinary case of murder.
Nothing’s certain except death and taxes. Catching tax evaders for the Emperor Vespasian looks like a plum position for Marcus Didius Falco, who has teamed up with his old boss, Anacrites, the crotchety chief spy of Rome. Soon, however, Falco is bogged down in bureaucracy, stuck at his stylus, and longing for a good murder to investigate.
He gets one when someone kills the lion Leonidas, the Empire’s official executioner. Feared by plebeians and citizens alike, Leonidas administered justice with a swift, sure blow. Then he ate the offender. Now this king of beasts lies stabbed to death in his cage.
Sniffing around for clues, Falco is soon led into the rowdy, decadent world of gladiators and bestiarii, fighters who specialize in contests against animals. Falco finds that it’s dark and dangerous in the tunnels under the arena—and even blacker in the desperate souls of those who must kill or be killed each time the games begin. Yet no one has a motive for slaughtering a lion after hours.
The unexpected slaying of the most glamorous gladiator in the city is another matter.
Now Falco has a high-profile crime to handle—and a domestic crisis brewing. His lover, the patrician Helena, reports that her disgraced brother needs help in Tripoli. Since Africa may well be the missing link between the murders of man and beast, Falco is quickly en route to those far shores … and heading toward a dangerous rendezvous with the raging lions that reside in the human heart, and one particular person who stalks his fellow man.
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"the eight books I have ordered to date are great. I want all her books."
— Isabel (5 out of 5 stars)
“With the passing of Ellis Peters, the title Queen of the historical whodunit is temporarily vacant. Lindsey Davis is well suited to assume it—and she is funnier than Peters…Davis’ books make old Rome sound fun…It is all so enjoyable.”
— Times (London)“As usual, Davis’ research into the customs of the period is impeccable.”
— Publishers Weekly“Davis is in fine form: the characterizations are terrific, the historical details are intriguing, and Falco is his rueful, wisecracking self.”
— Library Journal“Davis sticks closely to her successful formula here: a detail-rich scan of daily life in ancient Rome, a side trip to one of the Empire’s outposts, and lots of beguiling Nick-and-Nora banter between Falco and Helena. It’s worked before, and it works again.”
— BooklistLindsey Davis is an English novelist of historical fiction and best known for her award-winning historical crime stories set in ancient Rome and its empire, the acclaimed Marcus Didius Falco series and the Flavia Albia series. Her novels have won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers’ Association Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award and in 2011 the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association for lifetime achievement. Born and raised in Birmingham, England, she read English at Oxford and worked for the civil service for thirteen years before becoming a writer.
Simon Prebble, a British-born performer, is a stage and television actor and veteran narrator of some three hundred audiobooks. As one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices, he has received thirty-seven Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie in 2010. He lives in New York.