The 15th novel in the acclaimed Marcus Didius Falco series finds the first century sleuth confronting Roman legal forces that may just destroy him--and his family. Fresh from his trip to far-flung Londinium in Britain, Marcus Didius Falco needs to re-establish his presence in Rome. A minor role in the trial of a senator entangles him in the mach...more

"Delectably funny...A novel that gives new meaning to the term 'classic detective fiction.'"THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLDIn 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 woma...more

This, the fourth of Davis's thrillers about Falco, a private enquiry agent and informer in the Rome of Vespasian, takes him off to the wilds of Germany. Though most of the Falco books play with, and translate into Roman terms, the stock material of the hard-boiled crime novel--police corruption, serial killers, financial scams and women adven...more

It's 76 A.D. during the reign of Vespasian and the Roman holiday of Saturnalia has begun. The days are short; the nights are for wild parties. But not for Marcus Didius Falco. Falco is an informer by trade - his job is to uncover unwelcome truths and deal with sensitive situations, frequently at the behest of the imperial government. And just su...more

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 th...more

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 intel...more

When street-smart Marcus Didius Falco is coerced into a public reading of his satires, he couldn't feel worse. Yet his scribbling is met with rousing applause...and an offer by Chrysippus, esteemed banker, patron of the arts, and scroll merchant, to publish his work. Et tu, Brute! A euphoric Falco then discovers that Chrysippus expects to be paid f...more

See Delphi and Die is built, like several of Lindsay Davis' recent episodes of the adventures of her Roman private detective Falco, around the fact that the ancient world had a surprising number of versions of amenities we consider modern. Here, for example, we get the Roman tourist industry, with the newly rich and the old gentry buying package tr...more