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 the family history his mother has concealed. The case also forces Falco to confront Geminus, the father who abandoned the household.
Festus’s dealings reveal how military service, art collecting and speculative business can overlap inside one Roman family. Because Falco is investigating his dead brother, evidence is inseparable from memory and resentment, while Geminus’s reappearance unsettles loyalties he thought were fixed. The mystery uses stolen sculpture and commercial debt to turn family history into a criminal investigation.
Steven Saylor
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Amanda Cockrell
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Anthony Riches
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Christopher Lee Buckner
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Alex Gough
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