1. The Silver Pigs
In AD 70 Marcus Didius Falco helps the young Sosia Camillina after she becomes involved in a political conspiracy. Her information leads to stolen silver-bearing ingots and to senators who hope to exploit the unsettled beginning of Vespasian's reign. Falco travels to Britain, where he works…
2. Shadows in Bronze
Falco continues tracing the surviving members of the conspiracy uncovered in The Silver Pigs. His search takes him through southern Italy, where former supporters of Vespasian's rivals are concealing money, loyalties and plans for renewed opposition. The political assignment is complicated by Falco's attachment to Helena…
3. Venus in Copper
After leaving prison, Falco is hired by three freedmen who fear that Severina Zotica intends to marry and murder one of them for his property. Her previous husbands died in circumstances that appear increasingly difficult to explain as coincidence. Falco investigates Severina while confronting rent racketeers,…
4. The Iron Hand of Mars
Vespasian sends Falco to the Rhine frontier to inspect unreliable legions and locate a commander who has disappeared after the Batavian Revolt. Titus also wants Falco removed from Rome while he pursues Helena Justina. Travelling through Germania, Falco encounters damaged forts, unsettled auxiliary communities and surviving…
5. Poseidon’s Gold
Falco returns from Germania to find a former legionary demanding payment for a failed commercial venture associated with Falco's dead brother Festus. When the claimant is murdered, Falco becomes the principal suspect. Clearing his name requires him to investigate Festus's wartime business dealings, stolen art and…
6. Last Act in Palmyra
Falco accepts an intelligence assignment in the eastern provinces after Vespasian again refuses to advance his social rank. At a sacred site he discovers a playwright's body and joins the travelling theatre company connected with the victim. The troupe's route through Syria and the Decapolis allows…
7. Time to Depart
The gangster Balbinus Pius is convicted but uses a citizen's right to leave Rome before punishment is enforced. His departure creates a struggle among criminal groups seeking control of his businesses. Falco assists his vigiles friend Petronius Longus as robbery, arson and intimidation spread through the…
8. A Dying Light in Corduba
After an attack at a dinner for Baetican olive-oil producers leaves one man dead and another badly injured, Falco travels to southern Hispania to identify the interests behind the violence. His investigation moves among estate owners, exporters and officials whose wealth depends on supplying Rome. Helena…
9. Three Hands in the Fountain
A severed hand found in a public fountain leads Falco and Petronius to other remains recovered from Rome's aqueduct system. The pattern suggests a killer has targeted women over a long period while officials avoided public alarm. The disappearances appear connected with the city's festival calendar,…
10. Two for the Lions
Falco is required to work with the imperial agent Anacrites while auditing wealthy citizens for Vespasian's census. Their enquiries enter the businesses that supply animals and trained fighters for the arena. The death of a valuable lion and then a gladiator exposes a rivalry among trainers…
11. One Virgin Too Many
After receiving a minor public office connected with Rome's sacred geese, Falco becomes involved in disputes among priestly families. A member of a religious brotherhood is murdered and a child considered for selection as a Vestal disappears. The investigation moves through institutions protected by tradition and…
12. Ode to a Banker
Falco's public poetry reading brings him into contact with Aurelius Chrysippus, a banker who finances and publishes writers. When Chrysippus is killed in his scriptorium, Petronius asks Falco to investigate the author's clients and business partners. The inquiry exposes debt, vanity and exploitation within Rome's literary…
13. A Body in the Bath House
A body discovered beneath the floor of Falco's new bath house links a domestic building dispute with contractors who have left Rome for Britain. Falco is then sent to inspect an imperial construction project at Fishbourne. At the palace associated with the client ruler Cogidubnus, competing…
14. The Jupiter Myth
While Falco remains in Londinium after the Fishbourne assignment, a man connected with Cogidubnus is found dead in a tavern well. The killing points towards extortion and protection rackets developing in the rapidly expanding provincial town. Falco and Petronius encounter immigrant criminals, local officials and female…
15. The Accusers
After a senator is convicted of corruption and apparently kills himself, Falco is hired to prove that the death was murder. The distinction matters because suicide would affect the financial rewards and penalties owed to the professional accusers. Falco and Helena investigate the senator's heirs, advocates…
16. Scandal Takes a Holiday
Falco travels to Ostia to find a missing writer who supplies scandal and political gossip to Rome's public notices. What appears to be an absence caused by bribery or assault becomes connected with shipping, abduction and piracy. The investigation moves through warehouses, taverns and publishing networks…
17. See Delphi and Die
Falco and Helena join a commercial tour group in Greece after newlyweds disappear during their journey. Helena's brother Aulus, travelling towards university in Athens, has already become involved in the case. Following the party through Olympia, Corinth and Delphi, Falco examines guides, lodging arrangements and conflicts…
18. Saturnalia
During Saturnalia, the captured Germanic seer Veleda escapes from guarded accommodation in Rome, leaving a dead man behind. Helena's brother Justinus, who had known Veleda in Germania, also disappears. Falco and Anacrites search the city while holiday disorder frustrates surveillance and investigation. The case returns to…
19. Alexandria
Falco travels with Helena and their family to Alexandria in AD 77. A visit to the scholarly institutions becomes an investigation when the head librarian is found dead in circumstances that suggest professional rivalry rather than accident. Further deaths, stolen books and disputed appointments draw Falco…
20. Nemesis
After a personal bereavement, Falco investigates the disappearance of a couple who supplied statues to his father. Their last known dispute involved the Claudii, a violent freedmen family living in the Pontine Marshes. Falco and Petronius find mutilated victims and evidence that the family enjoys protection…