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“Didn't
she tell you? She thinks her family want to kill her,”
said Helena.
“Oh,
that's all right then. I was worried it might have been a real
emergency.”
Chosen by reader, Helen Ilg
Plot Summary
In the third, and final, book of the 'Partners' trilogy, Falco was intended
to work with Helena's nice brother, Justinus. That seemed too good to be true, so he
acquires a trickier helper - not to mention both his previous partners, Petronius and
Anacrites, who hover around hoping to see him fall flat on his face.
An appeal to help a young child draws him reluctantly into the
world of the Roman state cults - in which Fortune has given him a role of his own, though
as he says, up to his boot-thongs in goose shit. A member of the Arval Brethren is
murdered in their Sacred Grove, causing a sinister cover-up by the establishment, while
the Vestal Virgins Lottery looks equally murky and is complicated by an association with
Queen Berenice of Judaea that has attracted gossip. Hemmed in by patriarchal priests and
their inbred offspring, grappled by Virgins without consciences, and imprisoned under
threat of execution, Falco was already in enough trouble trying to look after his widowed
sister and her heartbroken children - and that's before he has to dangle upside down over
a very deep hole, supported only by the three partners who may be only too happy to drop
him …
Research Note: This is the one where I researched
Virginity from memory.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Dinah Lampitt (Deryn
Lake) for the inspiration of the straight upper cut - and for asking 'Would Romans have
worn underpants?'
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Reviews
'The narrative bowls
along in this story of the gruesome corpse and the dark secrets in a noble family of high
priests and Vestal Virgins. Falco is so entertainingly sharp witted that any reservation
about the combination of a modern genre and long-dead history are overcome. If Ancient
Rome was not like this, it ought to have been. The book is as lively as a beaker of the
finest Falernian wine' - The Independent
'Davis adroitly pulls off the trick
of ensuring that her detective's anachronistically modern sensibility does not seem out of
place in ancient Rome. The politics are, as usual, remarkably well handled with the
pressure on the beleaguered Falco greater than before because of his new responsibilities.
The sight, sound, and smell of Rome is captured with even greater pungency than usual.'
- Dillons in Publishers News
'Pretty certainly the most popular of historical crime story writers
now operating. She makes the whole immensely detailed backgrounds seem absolutely natural
and authentic; she also has a deadpan throwaway wit which makes her stories bubble
along...' - Birmingham Post
'The most loveable precursor of all those tender-hearted tough guys
in crime fiction...Falco's lively narration of his adventure combines humour with sharp
observation, making this one of the most entertaining books of the year so far.'
- Sunday Telegraph.
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