Lindsey Davis creëert meeslepende historische romans die lezers diep onderdompelen in de wereld van het oude Rome. Haar werken onderscheiden zich door nauwgezet historisch onderzoek en levendige afbeeldingen van het dagelijks leven die het publiek volledig boeien. Davis verweeft vakkundig boeiende mysteries met gedetailleerde beschrijvingen van de samenleving van die tijd, waardoor verhalen ontstaan die zowel boeiend als informatief zijn. Haar romans bieden een fascinerend kijkje in het verleden door de ogen van onvergetelijke personages.
`The first concern of an author is to do down his colleagues.'In the long, hot Roman summer of AD 74, Falco, private informer and spare-time poet, gives a reading for his family and friends. A visit to the Chrysippus scriptorium implicates Falco in a gruesome literary murder, so when commissioned to investigate, Falco is forced to accept.
`To find a drowned man head-first down a well was slightly unusual, exciting maybe.'For Falco, a relaxed visit to Helena's relatives in Britain turns serious at the scene of a downtown murder.
Ancient Rome's most turbulent period is recreated in this story of the Emperor Vespasian and his mistress, Antonia Caenis, a freed slave. As their forbidden romance blossoms, she is embroiled in political intrigue, while he embarks on a glorious career.
The next book in the thrilling Flavia Albia series, by acclaimed author Lindsey Davis.
'Lindsey Davis has seen off all her competitors to become the unassailable market leader in the 'crime in Ancient Rome' genre . . . Davis's squalid, vibrant Rome is as pleasurable as ever' - Guardian 'For fans of crime fiction set in the ancient world, this one is not to be missed' - Booklist Private investigator Flavia Albia is always drawn to an intriguing puzzle - even if it is put to her by her new husband's hostile ex-wife. On the Quirinal Hill, a young girl named Clodia has died, apparently poisoned with a love potion. Only one person could have supplied such a thing: a local witch who goes by the name of Pandora, whose trade in herbal beauty products is hiding something far more sinister. The supposedly sweet air of the Quirinal is masking the stench of loose morality, casual betrayal and even gangland conflict and, when a friend of her own is murdered, Albia determines to expose as much of this local sickness as she can - beginning with the truth about Clodia's death. **************** Praise for Lindsey Davis and the Flavia Albia series 'Davis's prose is a lively joy, and Flavia's Rome is sinister and gloriously real' The Times on Sunday 'Davis's books crackle with wit and knowledge . . . She has the happy knack of making the reader feel entirely immersed in Rome'
It's 76 A.D. during the reign of Vespasian and the Roman holiday of Saturnalia has begun. The days are short; the nights are for wild parties. But not for Marcus Didius Falco. Falco is an informer by trade - his job is to uncover unwelcome truths and deal with sensitive situations, frequently at the behest of the imperial government. And just such a case has arisen. A general has captured a famous enemy of Rome, and brings her home to adorn his eventual Triumph as a ritual sacrifice. But everything goes wrong from there - first she acquires a mysterious illness, then a young man is horrendously murdered and she escapes from house arrest. Marcus Didius Falco, hired to find her and return her to custody before Saturnalia is over, is pitted against his old rival, the Chief Spy Anacrites. The two of them are in a race against time to find the fugitive before the public learns of the situation, making the government look stupid. Falco, however, has other priorities. Helena's brother Justinus has also vanished, perhaps fatally 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…
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.
In the sacred grove of Julius Caesar, something deadly stirs in the undergrowth—a serial killer, who haunted the gardens for years, has claimed another victim—in Lindsey Davis’s next historical mystery, The Grove of the Caesars. At the feet of her adoptive father, renowned private informer Marcus Didius Falco, Flavia Albia learned a number of important rules. First and foremost—always keep one's distance from the palace, nothing good comes from that direction. But right behind it—murder is the business of the Vigiles, best to leave them to it. Having broken the first rule more often than she'd like, it's no surprise to anyone when she finds herself breaking the second one. The public gardens named after the Caesars is a place nice girls are warned away from and when a series of bodies are uncovered, it seems that a serial killer has been haunting the grove for years. The case is assigned to one Julius Karus, a cohort of the Vigiles, but Albia is convinced that nothing will come of his efforts. Out of sympathy for the dead women and their grieving relatives, Albia decides to work with the vile Karus and bring the serial killer to justice.
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.
As the girl came running up the steps, I decided she was wearing far too many clothes...So, in 1989, readers were introduced to Marcus Didius Falco, the Roman informer, as he stood on the steps of the Temple of Saturn, looking out across the Forum: the heart of his world.