1. The Ides of April
In AD 89 Flavia Albia works as an independent informer from the Aventine Hill. A client's sudden death appears natural until Albia finds a connection with other unexplained deaths across Rome, all occurring without obvious violence or warning. Her inquiry develops while the neighbourhood prepares for…
2. Enemies at Home
A wealthy husband and wife are murdered in their locked household, and suspicion falls immediately on their slaves. Roman law exposes the entire household to interrogation and execution if any slave is judged to have failed to protect the owners. Albia investigates while the accused seek…
3. Deadly Election
A decomposing body is discovered inside goods prepared for auction by Albia's family. With no clear identity or reported disappearance, she must reconstruct the victim's movements from the objects and households connected with the sale. At the same time, Manlius Faustus is managing a candidate in…
4. The Graveyard of the Hesperides
While renovating the Garden of the Hesperides tavern, workers uncover the remains of a barmaid who vanished years earlier. Further digging reveals five more skeletons, turning a building project into an investigation of neglected deaths in Rome's lower-status entertainment district. Albia questions former workers, landlords and…
5. The Third Nero
Soon after Albia's marriage, palace officials ask her to identify a traitor who has helped another man claim to be the dead emperor Nero. Earlier pretenders had found support in the eastern provinces, making even an implausible claimant a political danger to Domitian. Albia enters a…
6. Pandora’s Boy
A teenage girl on the Quirinal dies after taking what is described as a love potion. Albia is drawn into the case by her husband's former wife and begins tracing the mixture to Pandora, a herbalist whose beauty business serves a secretive local clientele. The investigation…
7. A Capitol Death
Rome prepares for Domitian's double triumph over the Chatti and Dacians when an official supervising the celebration falls from the Capitoline Hill. Albia doubts that the death was accidental because the victim's abusive conduct and commercial schemes had created numerous enemies. Her inquiry moves through triumphal…
8. The Grove of the Caesars
Albia supervises work in gardens once associated with Julius Caesar when labourers uncover buried philosophical scrolls. The discovery is overtaken by the disappearance and murder of a woman who had attended a private celebration in the grounds. Evidence links the death to a pattern of women…
9. A Comedy of Terrors
During Saturnalia, normal business and official routines give way to feasting, role reversal and street disorder. Manlius Faustus discovers that rival gangs are fighting for control of the profitable trade in nuts used as holiday food and missiles. Albia and Tiberius investigate without reliable official support…
10. Desperate Undertaking
At the end of December, a series of murders around the Field of Mars imitates violent scenes from popular drama. The killings occur near Domitian's new Odeon and Stadium and appear intended to punish people connected with the theatrical profession. With Falco away, Albia accepts a…
12. Fatal Legacy
An unpaid tavern bill leads Albia into a decades-old dispute created by the will of Appius Tranquillus Surus. The document freed enslaved workers, transferred businesses and divided rights to an orchard between two families, but the original will and a disputed codicil have disappeared. Violence, forged…
14. Death on the Tiber
A woman's body is recovered from the Tiber after a wealthy group of travellers passes through Rome. Albia takes an interest because the victim is also British and bears evidence of deliberate violence that the authorities are reluctant to pursue. The death occurs as a criminal…
16. There Will Be Bodies
Ten years after Vesuvius destroyed communities around the Bay of Naples, Albia and Tiberius are asked to restore a buried villa and identify human remains. The work exposes the practical problems of abandoned property, missing owners and families who never learned how relatives died. One body,…
17. Murder in Purple and Gold
Flavia Albia is walking her dog near the Circus Maximus after dark when she discovers the body of a young charioteer. The victim was a promising driver for the Purple faction, trained by a celebrated former champion and expected to become one of Rome’s sporting stars.…