A Capitol Death

Starred review from May 13, 2019
An inauspicious death on the eve of Emperor Domitian’s planned return to Rome in 89 C.E. sets the stage for Davis’s superior seventh outing for informer Flavia Alba (after 2018’s Pandora’s Boy). The powers that be fear that the capricious Domitian will lash out, violently, after the possibly unnatural death of Gabinus, a worker helping to prepare for the imperial triumph to celebrate the emperor’s recent military victory in the east. Gabinus apparently jumped to his death from the top of the Tarpeian Rock. But the initial consensus that he was a suicide is shattered by a witness who insists that a second person was near Gabinus at the time. When the question of what actually happened falls to Roman official Tiberius Manlius Faustus, he passes the inquiry on to his wife, Flavia, who finds no shortage of people who wished the dead man ill. Davis does her usual brilliant job of integrating the history of the period, warts and all (Domitian’s ostensible victory was actually the result of his paying off the enemy’s leaders), with a fast-paced and fair whodunit. This entry reinforces her place at the top of the historical mystery pack.

May 15, 2019
In ancient Rome, politics makes strange bedfellows--and lethal enemies in Davis' (Pandora's Boy, 2018, etc.) latest. It's the year 89. Emperor Domitian, a former general, is big on ceremony, particularly when it honors him. Seasoned investigator (and droll narrator) Flavia Albia enters his service with eyes wide open. To celebrate the return of the emperor from his military campaigns, not one but two celebrations known as Triumphs are planned, but the project manager, the hapless Gabinus, slows their progress when he plunges inconveniently from the Tarpeian Rock. His death might have been ruled a suicide if there hadn't been a witness. So Flavia is nudged into discreetly finding out whether Gabinus was pushed. The timing is far from ideal, for Flavia should be tending her husband, Manlius Faustus, who's been struggling to run his construction company ever since he was struck by lightning. Elderly witness Valeria Dillia insists that she saw a tussle but is hazy on other details and doesn't want to testify under oath. Her tentative, perhaps unreliable evidence forces Flavia to delve uncomfortably deeper, questioning, among others, the renowned augur Larth and Gabinus' meek deputy, Egnatius. A strange additional theory of the crime involves the Sacred Geese of Juno, whose aggression may have pushed Gabinus off the Rock, because you never know. Flavia's investigation moves slowly. As she uncovers surprising connections, she finds herself uncomfortably shadowed by unsavory individuals with sinister agendas. The abundant charm of the heroine and the heavily detailed historical background will hook readers and keep them hooked.

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May 1, 2019
Davis offers another installment in the adventures of sassy private "informer" Flavia Albia (after Pandora's Boy, 2018), this one set in 89 CE Rome amid frantic preparations for two celebrations to honor Domitian's military victories. Harkening back to the origins of Rome, begun as a city founded by twins Romulus and Remus, sons of the war god Aries, this adventure follows another pair of brothers who are involved in the death (suicide or murder?) of the man in charge of organizing the festivities, which include the emperor's conveyance through the streets in a golden chariot. It's up to Flavia to sort out who did what, but it's the delicious details that are the real appeal here. Only Davis could somehow ace the insertion of the anachronistic expression pimping his ride into a narrative about the splendors of ancient times. Best of all, to the envy of the men in her life, the intrepid Flavia gets to do a sort of test drive in the lavish chariot. Vivat Flavia!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2019

Following in the footsteps of famed father Marcus Didius Falco, Flavia Albia solves crimes in ancient Rome. Here, in what looks to be suicide, a man has plunged to his death from the Tarpeian Rock looming above the Forum. But a witness insists the unpopular victim was pushed.

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