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‘I shall omit what was said in my
household next morning.’
Chosen by readers, Rosina and George Harter
Plot Summary
All those doubters who query 'Was there really a Daily
Gazette?' will find the Acta Diurna carefully explained
to shut them up. Falco visits Petronius and his favourite
brother-in-law, Gaius Baebius, at Ostia while on a missing
person hunt for a vanished scribe. Fun and frights and family
pressures colour a sunny adventure beside the sea (NB we know
our Hero cannot swim...) There would be pirates – had not Pompey
cleared the seas of pirates, as everybody knows. Perhaps we
shall learn what pirates do when they are not being pirates any
more.
At least, Falco assures himself, there are no dead bodies in
this one. Regular readers will know what that means. A little
boy comes to tell the vigiles that his mummy won't wake up, for
starters. The topiarist in fear of his life. Even Gaius Baebius
takes sick leave. And that's before we meet the sailors who want
to play games with their gangplank, the mysterious Illyrian (who
may not be Illyrian at all), the boy racer speeding in the flash
chariot at rush hour, and the girl with too many romantic ideas.
Name from the past note: There is a name from the
past. But we won't talk about that.
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