Marcus Didius Falco mysteries
The Silver Pigs is Lindsey Davis' classic novel, which introduced readers around the world to Marcus Didius Falco, a private informer with a knack for trouble, a tendency for bad luck, and a frequently inconvenient drive for justice.
When Marcus Didius Falco, a Roman "informer" who has a nose for trouble that's sharper than most, encounters Sosia Camillina in the Forum, he senses immediately all is not right with the pretty girl. She
It's the first century A.D. and Marcus Didius Falco, Ancient Rome's favorite son and sometime palace spy, has just been dealt a lousy blow from the gods: The beautiful, high-born Helena Justina has left him in the dust. So when the Emperor Vespasian calls upon him to investigate an act of treason, Falco is more than ready for a distraction. Disguised as an idle vacationer in the company of his best friend Petronius, Falco travels from the Isle
...Rome, AD 71. Marcus Didius Falco is desperate to leave the notorious Lautumiae prison—though being bailed out by his mother is a slight indignity.
Things go from bad to worse when a group of nouveau riche ex-slaves hire him to outwit a fortune-hunting redhead, whose husbands have a habit of dying accidentally, leaving him up against a female contortionist, her extra-friendly snake, indigestible cakes, and rent racketeers. All the while
...When Germanic troops in the service of the Empire begin to rebel, and a Roman general disappears, Emperor Vespasian turns to the one man he can trust: Marcus Didius Falco, a private informer whose rates are low enough that even the stingy Vespasian is willing to pay them.
To Falco, an undercover tour of Germania is an assignment from Hades. On a journey that only a stoic could survive, Falco meets with disarray, torture, and murder. His one
After six months in wild Germania, imperial gumshoe Marcus Didius Falco is back in Rome sweet Rome—but his apartment has been ransacked. And although he desperately needs 400,000 sesterces in order to marry his aristocratic love, Helena, his only client is his mother, who insists that he find out whether the scandalous claims against his dead brother, Festus, are true.
Then the chief tarnisher of Festus' good name is murdered, and Marcus
...The spirit of adventure calls Falco on a new spying mission to the untamed East in search of the Emperor Vespasian . He's picking up extra fees from his old friend Thalia the snake dancer as he searches for Sophrona, her lost water organist. With the Chief Spy Anacrites paying his fare, Falco knows anything can go wrong.
A dangerous brush with the Brother, the sinister ruler of Nabataean Petra, sends Falco and his girlfriend Helena on a fast
Petronius Longus, captain of the Aventine watch and Falco's oldest friend, has finally nailed one of Rome's top criminals. Under Roman law, citizens are not imprisoned but are allowed "time to depart" into exile outside the Empire. One dark and gloomy dawn, Petro and Falco put the evil Balbinus aboard a ship.
But soon after, an outbreak of robbery and murder suggests a new criminal ring has moved into Balbinus's territory. Petro and Falco must
Sharing a ewer of Spanish red with his old friend and new partner Petronius Longus, Marcus Didius Falco is on the spot when a man cleaning the local fountain makes a gruesome discovery: a human hand that 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
...10. Two for the lions: a Marcus Didius Falco mystery novel
11. One virgin too many
Lindsey Davis is the internationally bestselling author who "makes Rome live" (Washington Post Book World). Funny, astute, and hard-boiled, her series detective, Marcus Didius Falco, now ventures into a new arena, the publishing world of AD 74, to prove that ars longa, vita brevis—and murder is timeless.
Can a tough detective possess the soul of a poet? After a public reading brings him rousing applause, Falco receives
...Poor Marcus Didius Falco: The two shiftless contractors working on his new Roman bath house have left him with a horrible smell emanating from the below-ground furnace...and some gruesome site debris. Meanwhile, the king of the Atrebtes tribe in faraway Britain is planning...
14. The Jupiter Myth
For Falco, an attempt at relaxing while visiting his wife Helena’s relatives in Britain turns serious when a murder is discovered. King Togidubnus, the renegade henchman of Rome’s vital ally, has been stuffed head-first down a barroom well—leading to a tricky diplomatic situation which Falco...
15. The Accusers
One of Marcus Didius Falco’s guiltier pleasures is reading the scandal column in the Daily Gazette, which is always conveniently found in Rome’s Forum. When the scandal column’s pseudonymous scribe Infamia goes missing in seaside...
It's 76 A.D. during the reign of Vespasian, and Marcus Didius Falco has achieved much in his life. He's joined the equestrain rank, allowing him to marry Helena Justina, the Senator's daughter he's been keeping time with the past few years. But that doesn't mean all is quiet for Falco, Helena, and their two young daughters.
By trade he is an informer, a man who looks into sticky situations, and he's been hired to pry his errant brother-in-law
18. Saturnalia
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
...19. Alexandria
20. Nemesis
The much awaited latest installment in this New York Times bestselling series brings Marcus Didius Falco back to the city of Rome and its deadly, convoluted intrigues
In the high summer of A.D. 77, 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 else's misfortunes. A middle-aged couple who supplied statues to his father,