Poseidon's Gold (Marcus Didius Falco Series #5)

by Lindsey Davis

Overview

Rome, AD 72. Falco returns home from a six-month mission to the German legions. But trouble is in store for him: his apartment has been wrecked by squatters, and an ex-legionary friend of his colorfully heroic brother Festus is demanding money, allegedly owed him as the result of one of Festus's wild schemes. Worse still, the only client Falco can get is his mother-who wants him to clear the family name.

Then, just as Falco thinks things can only get better, fate takes a turn for the worse. The legionary is found viciously stabbed to death, with Falco the prime suspect. Now he has only three days to prove he is not a murderer, to trace the real suspect, amass evidence, and win a fortune.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466857469
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/30/2015
Series:	Marcus Didius Falco Series , #5
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	300
Sales rank:	260,481
File size:	2 MB

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

Davis (The Iron Hand of Mars) introduces a bright new figure in the brisk fifth novel in her series starring Marcus Didius Falco, free-lance ``informer'' in Rome during the first century A.D. Falco's dad, Geminus, who abandoned his family when Falco was a youngster, becomes his estranged son's unwelcome partner in an effort to relieve the family of a serious debt incurred by Falco's brother Festus, who died while serving in the army. Before his death, Festus had masterminded a scheme to sell a statue of Poseidon by the famed Phidias, involving fellow soldiers in a syndicate to buy the statue from its Greek owners. After the Poseidon was apparently lost at sea, a rude centurion shows up to insist that the syndicate be reimbursed. He and Falco fight in public, and later, when the soldier is stabbed to death, Falco is prime suspect. The intricate plot places Falco's highborn lover, Helena Justina, in jeopardy as she is also charged in the murder. To clear himself and Helena, Falco is forced to team up with his art-auctioneer father, a most appealing rogue, and come to grips with myths and facts of his family's personal history. Davis offers a vividly realized Imperial Rome-noisy, dense and dangerous. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

YA-This entertaining series continues as Falco is challenged to locate both the art treasure hidden by his deceased brother as well as to clear his own name from a murder charge. His father, an auctioneer of (sometimes fine) art, and Helena, his fiancee, are able assistants. The first-person narrative immediately draws readers into the story. Falco's dry wit surfaces with puns and satirical asides, and the conversations are especially realistic-often with half sentences. Details of Roman art, architecture, military, etc. appear throughout. Although the sleuthing progresses logically and in a step-by-step fashion, the vocabulary is fairly difficult. The family tree, list of characters, and map of Imperial Rome are helpful additions to understanding this delightful romp into the past.-Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA

School Library Journal

The latest installment in Davis' creative series about the first-century Roman sleuth Marcus Didius Falco couldn't be wittier or more vivid and charming. Falco is an endearing, curly-haired hunk with high moral standards, notwithstanding his bred-in-the-bone cynicism and an irresistible world-weariness. His turf, Rome circa A.D. 72, is not a realm for the fastidious. As Davis so energetically renders it, it's a city of filth, chaos, and chicanery, yet her good-natured, clever, and marvelously sarcastic characters aren't the least bit fazed, especially Falco's tough girlfriend, Helena Justina. She's not supposed to be scrappy and independent; she's the daughter of a senator, but she sticks by her man in spite of the fact that he can't scrape up the money or the authorization to officially marry her. They have plenty of other things to worry about, however, such as the fact that Falco is a prime murder suspect in a death linked to shady deals concocted by his late conniving brother Festus. As Falco attempts to clear his name without sullying his brother's any more than he has to, he ends up effecting an entirely unexpected reconciliation with his estranged father. This is a thoroughly enjoyable romp.

Donna Seaman