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They have been sent to investigate the murderous members of a failed coup, now sunning themselves in luxurious villas and on fancy yachts. The idyllic seaside location further complicates his seemingly doomed romance with Helena Justina.

'Rats are always bigger than you expect...'Falco, ancient Rome's hangdog investigator, hates sharing a cell with a rodent - though being bailed by his old mother is almost as embarassing.

Easier said than done, thinks Falco, as he makes his uneasy way down the Rhenus, trying to forget that back in sunny Rome his girlfriend Helena Justina is being hotly pursued by Titus Caesar.

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.

'I was just a freelance hero doing his best in a hard world.'The spirit of adventure calls Falco on a new spying mission for the Emperor Vespasian to the untamed East.

'"I still can't believe I've put the bastard away for good!" Petro muttered.'Petronius Longus, captain of the Aventine watch and Falco's oldest friend, has finally nailed one of Rome's top criminals. One dark and gloomy dawn, Petro and Falco put the evil Balbinus aboard a ship.

'Nobody was poisoned at the dinner for the Society of Olive Oil Producers of Baetica, though in retrospect this was quite a surprise.'Inimitable sleuth Falco is back with a vengeance. Soon he is plunged into the fiercely competitive world of olive oil production.

Whom did he eat, in fact?'Lumbered with working alongside reptilian Chief Spy Anacrites, Falco has the perfect plan to make money - he will assist Vespasian in the Emperor's 'Great Census' of AD 73.

'All the problems I know about are family ones.'A frightened child approaches Roman informer Falco pleading for help. Beset by his own family troubles, by his new responsibilities as Procurator of the Sacred Poultry, and by the continuing search for a new partner, Falco turns her away. Immediately he regrets it.

In the long, hot Roman summer of AD 74, Falco, private informer and spare-time poet, gives a reading for his family and friends. Things get out of hand as usual. The event is taken over by Aurelius Chrysippus, a wealthy Greek banker and patron to a group of struggling writers, who offers to publish Falco's work.

'There's nothing wrong with Britain ... that is if you leave out the mammoth travelling distance from one's dear Roman heritage!'AD 75. he wants someone to investigate. Falco has a new baby, a new house, and he hates Britain.

'To find a drowned man head-first down a well was slightly unusual, exciting maybe.'For Falco, a relaxed visit to Helena's relatives in Britain turns serious at the scene of a downtown murder.

'Luckily the judge was eager to adjourn for lunch.'Having returned from his trip to Londinium, Falco takes up employment with two lawyers at the top of their trade. With a little coercion, Falco joins the prosecution in seeking to persuade a magistrate to instigate a new trial.

But when his girlfriend, Helena, arrives carrying a batch of old copies of the Daily Gazette - with the intention of catching up on the latest scandal - Falco is forced to admit to Petronius his real reasons for being there... 'Infamia', the pen name of the scribe who writes the gossip column for the Daily Gazette, has gone missing.

she acquires a mystery illness - then a young man is horrendously murdered and she escapes from house arrest. Falco is pitted against his old rival, the Chief Spy Anacrites, in a race to find the fugitive before her presence angers the public and makes the government look stupid.

Egypt was the destination of choice for Roman tourists, being home to not one but two Wonders of the Ancient World, a Centre of Culture, and people with exotic habits. Unfortunately, when Marcus Didius Falco pays a visit he discovers it's also a hotbed of schemers and murderers.

In the high summer of 77 AD, Roman informer Marcus Didius Falco is beset by personal problems. Newly bereaved and facing unexpected upheavals in his life, it is a relief for him to consider someone else's misfortunes. A middle-aged couple who supplied statues to his father, Geminus, have disappeared in mysterious circumstances.