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 from powerful officials. When Anacrites takes control of the case, the investigation becomes inseparable from Falco's long rivalry with the imperial spy.
The Claudii are dangerous because their status as freedmen does not prevent them from accumulating money, clients and official protection. Falco’s suspicion therefore threatens people whose power operates outside the formal ranks of the senatorial elite. The case becomes a final test of his uneasy relationship with the imperial intelligence service and of whether justice is possible when criminals understand exactly which officials can be bought.
Steven Saylor
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Anthony Riches
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Christopher Lee Buckner
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