One Virgin Too Many
(Marco Didius Falco: book XI): an unputdownable Roman mystery from bestselling author Lindsey Davis
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Publisher Description
Fans of S. J. Parris, Donna Leon, Steven Saylor and C. J. Sansom will devour this captivating mystery, full of twists and turns. From multimillion-copy bestselling author of the Falco series Lindsey Davis.
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'Wonderful. A great, fun all round!' - Daily Telegraph
'Surely the best historical detective in the business' - Daily Telegraph
'An excellent who-dunnit!' - ***** Reader review
'A relaxing and absorbing read' - ***** Reader review
'Difficult to put down!!' - ***** Reader review
'Completely addictive' - ***** Reader review
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A lost child in a deadly lottery.
A frightened child approaches Roman informer Marcus Didius Falco, pleading for help. Nobody believes Gaia's story that a relation wants to kill her - and neither does he.
Beset by his own family troubles, by his new responsibilities as Procurator of the Sacred Poultry, and by the continuing search for a new partner, he turns her away...
Immediately he regrets it. Gaia's been selected as the new Vestal Virgin, and when she disappears Falco is asked to investigate.
Finding Gaia is soon a race against time, ending in Falco's most frightening exploit yet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"I seem to be hearing about nothing but religious cults this week," says Marcus Didius Falco--the Spenser of Ancient Rome--early on in this 12th entry in Davis's popular series. And indeed details of the weirder practices of Roman worship take up much (some might say too much) of the book's story. Falco himself has been rewarded for his lucrative work as a census taker with the dubious honor of looking after the Emperor's sacred geese--including cleaning up their droppings. Aulus, the younger brother of Falco's highborn lover, Helena, is trying to join a prestigious agricultural/fertility sect called the Arval Brothers. And several young girls, including Falco's own niece, are caught up in the selection of a new Vestal Virgin--which sounds in Davis's version like a children's beauty pageant straight out of the JonBenet Ramsey case. Falco has to put aside his goose-watching and reclaim his day job as private informer when (1) Aulus discovers a mutilated corpse at the Arval Brothers' bucolic retreat and (2) one of the leading Virgins--who tried to hire Marcus because she thought her family was trying to kill her--disappears. As usual, Davis shows us many ways in which Ancient Rome was both the same as and different from our own times--although the research isn't as seamlessly integrated as before. And Falco, while still an interesting mix of ambition and democracy, doesn't have that true ring of a real Roman coin he once had.
