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. In the blazing July heat of imperial Rome, Flavia Albia inspects a decomposing corpse. An Intimate Biogr.From the creator of Falco comes Falco: The New Generation, featuring her unforgettable heroine, Flavia Albia, in her third novel.

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It’s taken some time for this series to grow on me but I’m glad I stuck with it and I’m looking forward to book 4. Faustus remains a strong support and all-round steady character. The pieces fall into place after a second body is found in the same trunk.Īlbia is growing more confident and more mature. The tangled relationships between the candidates make it unlikely that Vibius Marinus is as devoted a family man as Faustus believes him to be. She’s game, but is disturbed by rumors about Faustus’ friend.

Faustus asks Albia in her capacity as informer to dig up dirt on the opponents. Intrepid and responsible, she sets out to identify the victim with hopes it will lead to the murderer.Īt the same time, Faustus comes to her for help (and for company.) He is acting as campaign manager for an old friend, Vibius Marinus. Albia, as the family representative, is more or less supervising so she is notified when a corpse is discovered in a lockbox the auction house has up for sale. In Deadly Election, Albia is back in Rome, recuperating from her most recent adventure (see book 2, Enemies at Home.) The family auction house is holding a summer sale, despite the fact that most people flee Rome in the heat of July. While I still find her wry cynicism less convincing than Falco’s, I enjoy the complex mysteries she solves and her evolving relationship with magistrate Manlius Faustus. Although she reports that being female limits her inquiries to discovering cheating husbands etc, she has in fact solved her share of murders mixed with political intrigue. Albia is similarly hard-boiled, a determined and intelligent detective. Flavia Albia is the adopted daughter of the famed informer/spy Marcus Didius Falco, whose stories I devoured.