Scandal Takes a Holiday
Lindsey Davis
 Marcus Didius Falco and Helena Justina travel to Ostia Antica, ostensibly on holiday. However, Falco is forced to confess to Petronius - present there on secondment - that he is in fact investigating the disappearance of Infamia, the pen name of the scribe who writes the gossip column for the Daily Gazette. He is at first believed to be merely a drunken truant, however investigations uncover some murky secrets. Piracy and other criminal traditions, long believed stamped out, are apparently alive and well in the region.