Lindsey Davis

Working as a private informer in Rome during the reign of Domitian, Flavia Albia is hired to investigate a fatal accident, an investigation that turns sinister when her client dies under suspicious circumstances that place Flavia's reputation at stake.

A Flavia Albia Mystery

The Ides of April

It's AD 72 Rome, and Emperor Vesparian refuses to elevate sometime sleuth Marcus Didius Falco to the middle rank. Yet hope springs eternal, so when Vespasian's chief spy offers Falco an assignment in the East, he jumps at the chance. But his new assignment soon becomes a nightmare when he finds the corpse of a Roman playwright in a sacred pool. To ferret out the murderer, Falco joins the traveling theater group.

Last Act in Palmyra

The latest book in the popular Marcus Didius Falco series - a classic noir tale of gangsters, gladiators, and romance.

The Jupiter Myth

In Rome, 89 A.D., poisonings, murders, and a bloody gang war of retribution breaks out during the festival of Saturnalia, and when her husband, Tiberius, becomes a target, it's time for Flavia Albia to take matters into her own hands -- in Lindsey Davis’s next historical mystery, A Comedy of Terrors. Flavia Albia, daughter and successor of private informer Marcus Didius Falco is twiddling her thumbs with no clients during the December festival of Saturnalia. But that doesn't mean all is quiet. Her husband Tiberius and the Fourth Cohort are battling organized crime interests that are going to war over the festival nuts. A series of accidental poisonings, then bloody murders of rival nut-sellers, and finally a gruesome warning to Tiberius from the hidden criminal powers to back off. Albia has had just about enough and combines forces with Tiberius to uncover the hidden criminal gangs trying to worm their way into the establishment at a banquet of the emperor Domitian.

A Flavia Albia Novel

A Comedy of Terrors

In first century A.D. Rome, during the reign of Vespasian, Marcus Didius Falco works as a private “informer,” often for the emperor, ferreting out hidden truths and bringing villains to ground. But even informers take vacations with their wives, so in A.D. 77, Falco and his wife, Helena Justina, with others in tow, travel to Alexandria, Egypt. But they aren’t there long before Falco finds himself in the midst of nefarious doings—when the Librarian of the great library is found dead, under suspicious circumstances. Falco quickly finds himself on the trail of dodgy doings, malfeasance, deadly professional rivalry, more bodies and the lowest of the low—book thieves! As the bodies pile up, it’s up to Falco to untangle this horrible mess and restore order to a disordered universe.

A Marcus Didius Falco Novel

Alexandria

Marcus Didius Falci is Imperial Rome's idea of Columbo, a detective on a horrendous assignment involving torture and murder, whose only hope is a powerful Druid priestess who may be persuaded to help--or may do him in. Reprint.

The Iron Hand of Mars

Marcus Didius Falco is a cynical, hard-boiled investigator living in first-century Rome. His latest case finds him drawn into the world of the Roman religious cults and the murder of a member of the Sacred Brotherhoods.

One Virgin Too Many

In vino, veritas. But in the water supply of Rome, horroras Marcus Didius Falco is about to find out. Sharing an ewer of Spanish red with his old friend and new partner Petronius Longus, Falco is on the spot when a man cleaning the local fountain makes a gruesome discovery: a human hand. Small and evidently female, the hand suggests its owner met a terrifying fate. Naturally, Falco and Petro, formerly of the Vigiles, want to seize on it as their first big case. The officials of Rome, however, prefer to hush up the incident, since a population that riots at the drop of a toga might run wild if body parts are polluting their drinking water. Soon other delicate, dismembered hands are being found in Rome's two hundred miles of aqueduct. Now aided, inspired, and given critical clues by his wife, Helena, Falco & Partner are ready to buck the status quo and even butt heads with Falco's old boss, Chief Spy Anacrites, to crack the case. But O, Hades! The duo suspects a serial killer is at large, linked topublic festivals, and likely to strike again at the upcoming Roman Games. Even a detective as astute as Falco may not spot a twisted mind in a crowd of 250,000. And if Falco loses this race with time, another pretty victim will make a deadly splash...

Three Hands in the Fountain

Balbinus Pius, the most notorious gangster in Emperor Vespasian's Rome, has been convicted of a capital crime at last. A quirk of Roman law, however, allows citizens condemned to death "time to depart" and find exile outside the empire. Now as every hoodlum in Rome scrambles to take over Balbinus' operations, private eye Marcus Didius Falco has to deal with an unprecedented wave of crime--and the sneaking suspicion that Balbinus' exile may not really be so permanent after all.

Time to Depart

Ancient Roman investigator Marcus Didius Falco finds trouble on the site of a new palace being built by the king of the Atrebtes tribe in distant Britain. 20,000 first printing.

A Body in the Bathhouse

Marcus Falco's brother-in-law, Aulus, has been diverted from his route to Athens university by a man whose daughter and son-in-law have disappeared while visiting the Olympic Games. Suspecting a classic-cover up, Aulus enrols Falco's help in solving the case. Originally published: London: Century, 2005.

See Delphi and Die

In the high summer of 77AD, Roman informer Marcus Didius Falco is beset by personal problems. Newly bereaved and facing unexpected upheavals in his life, it is a relief for him to consider someone elses misfortunes. A middle-aged couple who supplied statues to his father, Geminus, have disappeared in mysterious circumstances.

Nemesis

The first-century Roman daughter of Marcus Didius Falco investigates a murder and burglary for which the victims' innocent slaves will be executed unless the real culprit is found.

Enemies at Home

In first century Rome, Flavia Albia, the daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, has taken up her father's former profession as an informer. On a typical day, it's small cases---cheating spouses, employees dipping into the till---but this isn't a typical day. Her beloved, the plebeian Manlius Faustus, has recently moved in and decided that they should get married in a big, showy ceremony as part of beginning a proper domestic life together. Also, his contracting firm has been renovating a rundown dive bar called The Garden of the Hesperides, only to uncover human remains buried in the backyard. There have been rumors for years that the previous owner of the bar, now deceased, killed a bar maid and these are presumably her remains. In the choice between planning a wedding and looking into a crime from long ago, Albia would much rather investigate a possible murder. Or murders, as more and more remains are uncovered, revealing that something truly horrible has been going on at the Hesperides. As she gets closer to the truth behind the bodies in the backyard, Albia's investigation has put her in the cross-hairs---which might be the only way she'll get out of the wedding and away from all her relatives who are desperate to 'help.'

The Graveyard of the Hesperides

- The Accusers was published in Mysterious Press hardcover (0-89296-811-7) in 4/04. This trade paperback edition will tie into Davis's new hardcover, Scandal Takes a Holiday, due from Mysterious press in 9/04 - Lindsey Davis's prior novel, The Jupiter Myth, appeared on London's Sunday Times bestseller list. It was published by Mysterious Press in hardcover in 9/03 and in trade paperback in 5/04. - The creators of PBS's Inspector Morse television series are producing a series about Marcus Didius Falco, with scripts currently in development. - First Lady Laura Bush is a big fan of Davis's international bestselling novels, and the author received the Crime Writers Association's Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award in 199. Davis will be a guest of honor at Bouchercon 2004 in Toronto.

The Accusers

When the scribe of ancient Rome's daily scandal column goes missing in seaside Ostia, investigator Marcus Didius Falco learns that the scribe was working on a story about an underworld kidnapping racket involving pirates.

Scandal Takes a Holiday

The Sam Spade of Ancient Rome ("Publishers Weekly") sinks his teeth into the investigation of a star gladiator's murder in the tenth novel in this popular mystery series. "A detail-rich scan of daily life in ancient Rome".--"Booklist".

Two for the Lions

Marcus Didius Falco is ready to make new contacts and start a new career, and a dinner for the Society of Olive Oil Producers of Baetica seems like the perfect opportunity. But when two dinner guests are found beaten--one dead--Falco knows he cannot rest until he solves at least one more mystery.

A Dying Light in Corduba

Asked to investigate the background of Severina, engaged to real estate developer Hortensius and believed to be a golddigger, Marcus Didius Falco soon must investigate Hortensius' death

Venus in Copper

The top ten bestseller It is the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. The days are short, the nights are for wild parties. A general has captured a famous enemy of Rome, and brings her home to adorn his Triumph as a ritual sacrifice. The logistics go wrong; she acquires a mystery illness - then a young man is horrendously murdered and she escapes from house arrest. Marcus Didius Falco is pitted against his old rival, the Chief Spy Anacrites, in a race to find the fugitive before her presence angers the public and makes the government look stupid. Falco has other priorities, for Helena's brother Justinus has also vanished, perhaps fatefully involved once more with the great lost love of his youth. Against the riotous backdrop of the season of misrule, the search seems impossible and only Falco seems to notice that some dark agency is bringing death to the city streets...

Lindsey Davis

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