In the blazing July heat of imperial Rome, Flavia Albia inspects a decomposing corpse. It has been discovered in lots to be auctioned by her family business, so she's determined to identify the dead man and learn how he met his gruesome end.
The investigation will give her a chance to work with the magistrate, Manlius Faustus, the friend she sadly knows to be the last chaste man in Rome. But he's got other concerns than her anonymous corpse. It's election time and with democracy for sale at Domitian's court, tension has come to a head. Faustus is acting as an agent for a 'good husband and father', whose traditional family values are being called into question. Even more disreputable are his rivals, whom Faustus wants Albia to discredit.
As Albia's and Faustus' professional and personal partnership deepens they have to accept that, for others, obsession can turn sour, and become a deadly strain that leads, tragically, to murder.
Read MorePraise for THE IDES OF APRIL: Davis was primus and still has no pares ... The auguries promise a long, successful series. - TelegraphSadly, after 20 novels, Lindsey Davis is no longer chronicling the adventures of Marcus Didius Falco, her private eye in Ancient Rome. But fear not. With the Ides of April, she has only stepped down a generation. Enter the feisty, savvy and attractive Flavia Albia ... Davis continues her wonderful portrayal of the city and its inhabitants, and the delightful Flavia Alba adds an important element - the complicated status of working women. - The TimesThis is a welcome return to the familiar territory of ancient Rome. - Literary ReviewLindsey Davis's many fans will have been made anxious by the news that she is embarking on a news series with a new sleuth. They need not worry. Marcus Didius Falco's adopted daughter, Flavia Albia, is a wonderful creation, rendered with a surprising tenderness ... Just as closely researched and yet light-hearted as the Falco novels, The Ides of April is more touching. - Bookoxygen