The Marcus Didius Falco Series, Books 1-3
The Silver Pigs, Shadows in Bronze, Venus in Copper
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Discover Lindsey Davis's beloved, long-running series featuring private informer Marcus Didius Falco, set in first-century CE Rome.
The Silver Pigs:
Marcus Didius Falco, a private informer with a knack for trouble, a tendency for bad luck, and a frequently inconvenient drive for justice, encounters the young and very pretty Sosia Camillina in the Forum. Immediately he senses that something is amiss. When she confesses that she is fleeing for her life, Falco offers to help her and, in doing so, he gets himself mixed up in a deadly plot involving stolen ingots, dangerous and dark political machinations, and, most hazardous of all, one Helena Justina, a brash, indomitable senator's daughter who is connected to the very traitors that Falco has sworn to expose.
Shadows in Bronze:
It's the first century CE in Rome and informer and occasional imperial agent Marcus Didius Falco is miserable. The high-born woman he fell in love with, Helena Justina, has broken off their stormy, impossible affair. So when Emperor Vespasian assigns Falco a task that will take him out of Rome, he can't wait. Disguised as vacationer in the company of his comrade Petronius Longus, captain of the Aventine Watch, Falco travels south to Neapolis, Capreae and Pompeii where he discovers a conspiracy involving the Egyptian grain shipment to Rome. He also stumbles across Helena Justina, conveniently also on a trip out of town, who might, unwittingly, be enmeshed in this dangerous, treasonous scheme.
Venus in Copper:
A small accounting error has left Falco briefly sharing a cell with a large rat in the notorious Lautumiae prison. Being bailed out by his mother is bad enough, and things go from bad to worse when a group of nouveau riche ex-slaves hire him to outwit a fortune-hunting redhead. This woman's husbands have a habit of dying "accidentally." And, all the while, Falco tries to convince Helena Justina to live with him, a dangerous proposition, given the notorius instability of Roman real estate. In a case of murder as complicated as he ever faced, this classic tale shows Falco at his very finest.
Lindsey Davis
Historical novelist Lindsey Davis is best known for her novels set in Ancient Rome, including the much-loved Marcus Didius Falco series, although she has also written about the English Civil War, including A Cruel Fate, a book for the Quick Reads literacy initiative. Her examination of the paranoid reign of the roman emperor Domitian began with Master and God, a standalone novel set in that dark period, leading to her new series about Flavia Albia.
Her books are translated and five radio dramas are regularly rebroadcast on BBC Radio 4X. Her many awards include the Premio Colosseo (from the city of Rome) and the Crime Writers' Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement. Most recently she was awarded the Ivanhoe Prize for lifetime achievement in historical fiction, given by the Spanish City of Ubeda.
She has been the Chair of the UK Crimewriters' Association, Honorary President of the UK Classical Association, President of the Birmingham and Midlands Institute and is a Fellow of the UK Society of Authors.
www.lindseydavis.co.uk
Lindsey Davis - The Crime Writers' Association (thecwa.co.uk)
More by Lindsey Davis
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