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Learn moreIn this eighth mystery featuring hard-boiled Roman PI Marcus Didius Falco, Davis creates a chiaroscuro world of evil plots and dark humor, as olive oil whets a villain’s appetite for power and his taste for murder.
Surprisingly, nobody is poisoned at the Society of Olive Oil Producers banquet—the attempted murder of Rome’s chief spy occurs immediately afterward. Suspicion falls, quick as the Italian night, on the dinner’s sinuous dancer, a lady who has already left for Corduba, Spain. Naturally, Marcus Didius Falco, the Philip Marlowe of Roman detectives, is dispatched to follow her. But he has pledged to stay with Helena, his pregnant, patrician wife, until she gives birth. Caught between Scylla and Charybdis, Falco makes what may be a fatal mistake: he brings Helena with him to a terra incognita of olives and intrigue, where a dies irae and a remorseless killer wait.
Lindsey 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.
Simon Prebble has worked extensively on British and American television as both actor and narrator.
Reviews
“Another of her witty and always enjoyable mysteries.”
“Brilliant…witty…[will] keep readers fully amused and entertained.”
“The eighth in Lindsey Davis’ excellent and funny series…a cross between I, Claudius and Mystery!”
“A fascinating peek at everyday life in the colonial Roman empire, and the usual loopy cast of eccentrics that make Lindsey Davis novels such fun.”
“[A] fast-moving narrative that makes ancient Rome feel as real as the streets of New York or LA.”
“Solid detail and vivid insights that bring ancient Rome alive. But the plotting, though leisurely, is nicely suspenseful and the ending worth the wait.”
“Falco, the informer-cum-sleuth who navigates the corrupt political waters of the Roman Empire with an appealing mix of integrity and self-interest, is just hip enough for the room; he wears his cynicism like a raincoat, but he won’t be confused with Sam Spade at a toga party…Fascinating details about the olive-oil market lubricate the plot nicely, while Falco and Helena’s bantering about the baby-to-be evoke Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt on Mad about You.”
“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.”
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