Lindsey Davis, See Delphi and Die

See Delphi and Die

Lindsey Davis

St. Martin's, June 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0312357656

In 76 A.D. widower Caesius Secundus hires informer Marcus Didius Falco to investigate the unsolved murder of his beloved daughter Marcella Caesius. She vanished while attending the 213th Olympic competition three years ago, before her corpse was finally found. Officials assume the cold case will never be solved.

With the Olympic Games starting soon, Falco figures that it is the best place to learn who abducted Marcella, so he arranges a trip to Greece to attend the gala and begin his investigation. He takes his wife Helena with him, but leaves their young daughters (Julia and Favonia) with their grandmother; Falco also recruits his nephews Gaius and Cornelius, Albia the Brit, and Young Glaucus son of a trainer. Falco quickly learns that another young woman, Valeria Ventidia, violently died on a sightseeing expedition sponsored by the same party that Marcella went with, Seven Sights Travel. So he joins their tour as he thinks 'let the games begin'.

The seventeenth Falco Ancient Rome (and now Greece) investigation is a terrific entry that uses the case to provide readers with an incredible tour (Olympia is the fifth stop). Long time fans will appreciate the clever hero who still gets distracted too easily, and his brilliant wife who insures they stay focused. The enquiry turns personal when suddenly Gaius and Cornelius vanish in this wonderful whodunit that is part mystery and part historical novel, and all entertainment with quite a final twist.