“Rats are always bigger than you expect.” Falco, ancient Rome’s hangdog investigator, hates sharing a cell with a rodent, though being bailed by his mother is almost as bad. His highborn girlfriend can’t decide if she wants him. And Titus Caesar’s reward for past services is a wet fish. Hoping for better things, he takes on new clients: on the elegant slopes of the Pincian Hill, three nouveaux riches freedmen and their flashy wives are under siege to a clever redhead, Severina Zotica, and her foul-mouthed parrot. As he pursues this flame-haired fortune-hunter, Falco finds himself beset by violent rent-racketeers, poisoners and dangerous women with designs on him.
Lindsey Davis' Roman novels begin chronologically with The Course of Honour, the love story of the Emperor Vespasian and Antonia Caenis. Her bestselling mystery series features laid-back First Century detective Marcus Didius Falco and his partner Helena Justina, plus friends, relations, pets and bitter enemy the Chief Spy; there is a reader handboook, 'Falco: the Official Companion'. 'Master and God' set in the time of the Emperor Domitian, will be published in 2012. She has also written an epic novel of the English Civil War and Commonwelath, 'Rebels and Traitors'. Her books are translated into many languages and serialised on BBC Radio 4. Past Chair of the Crimewriters' Association and a Vice President of the Classical Association, she has won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the Dagger in the Library, and a Sherlock award for Falco as Best Comic Detective. She has also been awarded the Premio Colosseo for enhancing the image of Rome, and the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement as a mystery writer.
She was born in Birmingham but now lives in London.
