A Comedy of Terrors: A Flavia Albia Novel

by Lindsey Davis

Overview

"Melds scrupulous research, arch banter, caustic characters, and strong plotting...Flavia Albia is delightful, trickster-y company to spend time with." — New York Times Book Review

In Rome, 89 A.D., poisonings, murders, and a bloody gang war of retribution breaks out during the festival of Saturnalia, and when her husband, Tiberius, becomes a target, it's time for Flavia Albia to take matters into her own hands — in Lindsey Davis’s next historical mystery, A Comedy of Terrors.

Flavia Albia, daughter and successor of private informer Marcus Didius Falco is twiddling her thumbs with no clients during the December festival of Saturnalia. But that doesn't mean all is quiet. Her husband Tiberius and the Fourth Cohort are battling organized crime interests that are going to war over the festival nuts. A series of accidental poisonings, then bloody murders of rival nut-sellers, and finally a gruesome warning to Tiberius from the hidden criminal powers to back off.

Albia has had just about enough and combines forces with Tiberius to uncover the hidden criminal gangs trying to worm their way into the establishment at a banquet of the emperor Domitian.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250241542
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/27/2021
Series:	Flavia Albia Series , #9
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,099,908
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lindsey Davis was born and raised in Birmingham, England. After taking an English degree at Oxford and working for the civil service for thirteen years, she “ran away to be a writer.” Her internationally bestselling novels featuring ancient Roman detective Marcus Didius Falco include Venus in Copper, The Iron Hand of Mars, Nemesis and Alexandria. She is also the author of Rebels and Traitors, set during the English Civil War. Davis is the recipient of the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, the highest accolade for crime writers, as well as the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award and the Authors' Club Best First Novel award.

Editorial Reviews

05/10/2021

Davis’s strong ninth mystery set in ancient Rome starring private informer Flavia Albia (after 2020’s The Grove of the Caesars) finds Flavia’s husband, Tiberius Manlius, a magistrate in charge of the ancient Roman equivalent of consumer protection, drawn into his own inquiry. Nuts being sold in honor of the Saturnalia festival have made several Romans sick. Tiberius’s assistant believes that organized criminals, seeking to eliminate competition by sabotaging rivals in the nut trade, are responsible. Soon after Tiberius begins to investigate, the severed head of their pet sheep is left on their doorstep. With characteristic humorous disdain, Flavia takes the threat in stride (“Criminals can be very blinkered. They do not grasp that a householder and his wife have neither time nor energy to respond to stupid gestures”). After she teams up with Tiberius, they uncover a wide pattern of racketeering that includes murder, public corruption, extortion, and tax fraud. Davis convincingly depicts first-century mobsters, an aspect of ancient Roman criminality that’s been underutilized by authors writing about this period. This series remains as fresh as ever. (July)

Publishers Weekly

02/01/2021

In 89 CE Rome, private informer Flavia Albia has little to do during the raucous festival of Saturnalia but watch husband Tiberius and the Fourth Cohort challenge organized crime over the sale of nuts at the festival. Things change when gang war breaks out and her husband's life is threatened. With a 30,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

During the Roman festival Saturnalia, Britannia-born Flavia Albia, whom narrator Jane Collingwood makes sound rather patrician, is once again solving mysteries. Flavia Albia is a private informer/detective who has succeeded her father, Marcus Didius Falco. Together with her husband, Aedile Tiberius Manlius Faustus, she investigates crimes, including murder, the theft and distribution of spoiled nuts crucial to Saturnalia, and a missing wife. Conjuring class-appropriate accents, Collingwood voices Aedile Tiberius as a stuffy military leader-turned-politician. Dromo the slave is portrayed as unctuous, the nurse as put-upon, and the nut thief as bombastic, while the children come through as carefree and joyous. The mixture of accents and the clarity of Flavia Albia’s descriptions combine to create a believable romp through Rome in 89 CE. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile

During the Roman festival Saturnalia, Britannia-born Flavia Albia, whom narrator Jane Collingwood makes sound rather patrician, is once again solving mysteries. Flavia Albia is a private informer/detective who has succeeded her father, Marcus Didius Falco. Together with her husband, Aedile Tiberius Manlius Faustus, she investigates crimes, including murder, the theft and distribution of spoiled nuts crucial to Saturnalia, and a missing wife. Conjuring class-appropriate accents, Collingwood voices Aedile Tiberius as a stuffy military leader-turned-politician. Dromo the slave is portrayed as unctuous, the nurse as put-upon, and the nut thief as bombastic, while the children come through as carefree and joyous. The mixture of accents and the clarity of Flavia Albia’s descriptions combine to create a believable romp through Rome in 89 CE. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile