The fifth novel in the Flavia Albia series of historical mysteries. Flavia Albia is the British-born, adopted daughter of Marcus Didius Falco (retired informer and hero of Davis' previous mystery series) and his wife the noble Helena Justina. Both series are a delightful mix of intricate, historically based mysteries set in the Roman Empire of the Flavians 1st century A.D. and the classic hard-boiled detective genre.
In this latest adventure, set in the fall of 89 A.D., Flavia Albia's a beleaguered new bride. Her new husband, Titus Manlius Faustus, was struck by lightning during the wedding procession and is having a difficult recovery. The newlyweds are short of cash, and camped out in a house that's still being renovated, with few furnishings and even fewer servants. So when an Imperial freedman from the Emperor Domitian's intelligence service shows up on her doorstep with a possible commission, she can't afford to turn down the work.
Domitian, who requires his subjects to refer to him as "Master and God," has just put down the Saturninus Revolt, and is hellbent on re-establishing his authority with a round of purges and executions. After the fact, he wants proof that two provincial governors he has summarily executed were actually guilty of something. Flavia Albia is asked to interrogate their widows.
However the plot soon thickens. In the 21 years since the last of the Julio-Claudian Emperors, the late, unlamented tyrant Nero, committed suicide rather than be tried for his crimes, rumors have persisted in the provinces of Asia that Nero did not die but disappeared, and will return to claim his throne once more. Two imposters have appeared in subsequent years and became figureheads for short-lived revolts. Now there are rumors that another false Nero has surfaced, and may already be hiding somewhere in the city, while traitors within the government, perhaps even within the Emperor's household, are conspiring with Rome's enemies to assassinate Domitian and put their puppet on the Imperial throne.
Soon Flavia Albia is thrust into the middle of this high stakes political intrigue, in which the winner takes all and the losers wind up dead in a ditch (if they're lucky). The Emperor Domitian is due home any day from his war in Dacia, and whoever gets to him first with a plausible story and evidence to back it up, will win the game. Flavia finds herself infiltrating the household of the Parthian embassy to Rome, negotiating with spies, dealing with the goon who runs the Emperor's interrogation and disposal unit, dodging assassins and elephants rampaging through the streets of Rome, and trying to reassure her fretful husband that she's not taking crazy chances.
Another great story from Davis.
Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.
Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.
Click HERE to read the review from the Bookbag.
Click HERE to read the review from Crime Review.
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