The Grove of the Caesars - Lindsey Davis

Written by Lindsey Davis
Read by Jane Collingwood
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Unabridged

Flavia Albia Series, Book 8
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Release date: 04-02-20
Duration: 11:35:14

In the sacred grove of Julius Caesar, something deadly stirs in the undergrowth—a serial killer, who haunted the gardens for years, has claimed another victim—

At the feet of her adoptive father, renowned private informer Marcus Didius Falco, Flavia Albia learned a number of important rules. First and foremost—always keep one’s distance from the palace, nothing good comes from that direction. But right behind it—murder is the business of the Vigiles, best to leave them to it.

Having broken the first rule more often than she’d like, it’s no surprise to anyone when she finds herself breaking the second one. The public gardens named after the Caesars is a place nice girls are warned away from and when a series of bodies are uncovered, it seems that a serial killer has been haunting the grove for years. The case is assigned to one Julius Karus, a cohort of the Vigiles, but Albia is convinced that nothing will come of his efforts. Out of sympathy for the dead women and their grieving relatives, Albia decides to work with the vile Karus and bring the serial killer to justice.

Set in Rome in 89 CE, Davis’s engrossing eighth mystery featuring private investigator Flavia Albia (after 2019’s A Capitol Death) finds Flavia in charge of her husband Tiberius’s construction business while he’s away dealing with a family illness. As part of her job, Flavia visits gardens bequeathed to the people of Rome by Julius Caesar, to check on the progress of a contract to dismantle a small grotto, where workers have unearthed some old scrolls, a find that may have some financial value. But Flavia’s look into whether the writings are legitimate is put aside after the grisly discovery of the nude, strangled body of Victoria Teria, who disappeared during a birthday celebration held for her husband, Cluventius, in the gardens a short time before. Cluventius’s subsequent doubts about the official inquiry’s effectiveness lead him to hire Flavia to find the murderer, who she learns has been preying on women in the gardens for years. The author’s trademark dry wit leavens the gruesomeness of the central plot. Davis convincingly sets a hunt for a serial killer in ancient Rome….Publishers Weekly