Publisher's Weekly Review
In the 13th of this popular series (Ode to a Banker, etc.), Davis takes her witty and thoroughly likable Roman PI to Britain in 75 A.D. to investigate vast cost overruns at Fishbourne, a huge palace under construction to reward a local chieftain (now king) for aiding imperial legions to conquer his own people. Reluctant to leave the comforts of Rome while his newly widowed sister is being harassed by an unsavory suitor and he is switching houses with his errant father, our hero is browbeaten into the mission by boorish Emperor Vespasian. The whole family Falco journeys across Gaul to Britain's "ghastly terrain... where pasty-faced tribes still had not learned what to do with the sponge on the stick at public latrines." This tongue-in-cheek view of life's challenges nearly 2,000 years ago includes clever dialogue and quick-paced encounters between sophisticated Romans, who "deplore barbarian cruelty we prefer to invent our own," and sullen locals, especially Great King Togidubnus, who wants to keep his own primitive hut as part of the new palace architecture. Eventually, Falco becomes a target as Romans and Brits fight over everything from women to missing building supplies. In a prolonged and chaotic final chase sequence, Falco and his cohorts run through sleazy brothels and bars searching for culprits responsible for the bodies in the bathhouses, and Davis leaves us laughing at how little life has changed over the millennia. (Sept. 23) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
That cynical gum-sandal and paterfamilias with a heart of gold, Marcus Didius Falco (Ode to a Banker, 2001, etc.) travels to a cold and uncivilized outpost of the Empire-Britain-to take on an audit job for the Emperor, who is financing a new palace for the Togidubnus, king of the British barbarians. Construction is way over budget and behind schedule, a contemporary problem endemic to ancient Rome as well. (That, by the way, is the novel's only joke, repeated, as Falco would say, ad infinitum.) Falco doesn't want to go, but he does want to escape two unpleasant Roman situations: a corpse he discovered in his father's newly remodeled bathhouse, apparently killed and buried by the departed contractors, and his sister Maia's stalking by Falco's nemesis, Anacrites. Falco bundles up his wife, daughters, sister, nanny, dog, and two brothers-in-law and takes off for Noviomagus Regnensis-modern-day Fishburne, England, where he has a lot of fun (the reader may not) uncovering fraud and incompetence, naturally alienating fraudulent and incompetent members of the construction crew, who try to kill him. There are frauds within frauds, however, and when the architect is strangled with the surveyor's string-in the bathhouse, naturally-Falco needs to sort them out quickly. Then Anacrites' most deadly assassin, the dancer Perella, arrives, and Togidubnus' former architect is found dead, his throat cut using Perella's signature technique. Is Maia next? Old fans and unhappy owners of remodeled homes will enjoy this excursion; others may send Falco a change order.
Booklist Review
Marcus Didius Falco, everyone's favorite sarcastic ancient Roman, undertakes a reluctant trip to far-flung Britain in his thirteenth appearance. Various circumstances--including a dead body under his father's new bathhouse, a sister in danger from a spurned love interest, and a request from the emperor for help in auditing a British building project--converge to send Falco, his family, and his frightened sister to the damp and uncivilized frontier. The building site is rife with the usual problems--egotistical architects, unreasonable clients, incompetent workers, even some fraud. The unexplained deaths, however, are more of a surprise. Falco sets about restoring order, halting wrongdoing, and protecting his sister, but at a slower-than-usual pace. A large cast of characters is painstakingly introduced, and the building site carefully described at the expense of the action needed to keep the book moving. Falco's tongue is as sharp as ever, though, and Davis delivers her usual entertaining family dynamics and historically accurate details. Fans will no doubt forgive Falco for a slow outing. --Carrie Bissey
