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Venus in Copper

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Rome, AD 71. Marcus Didius Falco is desperate to leave the notorious Lautumiae prison—though being bailed out by his mother is a slight indignity.

Things go from bad to worse when a group of nouveau riche ex-slaves hire him to outwit a fortune-hunting redhead, whose husbands have a habit of dying accidentally, leaving him up against a female contortionist, her extra-friendly snake, indigestible cakes, and rent racketeers. All the while Falco tries to lure Helena Justina to live with him, a dangerous proposition given the notorious instability of Roman real estate. In a case of murder as complicated as he ever faced, Falco is at his very finest.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 2, 1992
      Ave Marcus Didius Falco! Once again Imperial Rome's wisecracking private investigator splendidly incarnates his time and placeas he uncovers a real estate development scam that proves the slum landlord is a long-established species. Fans of Silver Pigs and Shadows in Bronze will happily find Falco still sparring and making up with Helena Justina, the divorced daughter of a senator, carousing with his friend Petronius, captain of the Aventine Watch, obstructing his arch-enemy Anacrites, the Emperor Vespasian's chief spy, and trying to keep his mother and sisters at a comfortable distance. Here Falco is hired by two of the Hortensii, a group of freed slaves who have parlayed the legacy of their former owner into a fortune (which they display to vulgar excess), to investigate the thrice-widowed fiancee of one of their members. While Falco tries to prove that Severina Zotica has murdered her previous husbands, her betrothed is poisoned at a dinner with a notoriously unscrupulous developer and the detective must dig for other motives. Arson, evictions, skyrocketing rents, layered mortgage deals, another murder, near death for Helena and a brutal beating for himself spur Falco to ferret out the truth about the Hortensii and Severina. Period details, humor and Falco's modern sensibility add up to another sterling performance from Davis.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Rome in AD 70 and the present day have startling similaritiesâ not least of which is the prevalence of crime and those who work to stop it. Enter Marcus Didius Falco, private informerâ the private detective of the timesâ who is dating a woman far above his status and tackling cases that threaten his personal well-being. In VENUS, his third outing with the BBC, Falco has to solve the matter of a mysterious bribe for a family of freed slaves. This lavish dramatization offers a superb audio experienceâ and full marks are deserved for the amount of attention paid to the layering of sound, particularly in crowd scenes. The production is incredible through speakers, but even better in a dark room with good headphones! B.D.J. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

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  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

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