‘Lindsey Davis has seen off all her competitors to become the unassailable market leader in the ‘crime in Ancient Rome’ genre . . . Davis’s squalid, vibrant Rome is as pleasurable as ever’ – Guardian

‘For fans of crime fiction set in the ancient world, this one is not to be missed’ – Booklist

Private investigator Flavia Albia is always drawn to an intriguing puzzle – even if it is put to her by her new husband’s hostile ex-wife.

On the Quirinal Hill, a young girl named Clodia has died, apparently poisoned with a love potion. Only one person could have supplied such a thing: a local witch who goes by the name of Pandora, whose trade in herbal beauty products is hiding something far more sinister.

The supposedly sweet air of the Quirinal is masking the stench of loose morality, casual betrayal and even gangland conflict and, when a friend of her own is murdered, Albia determines to expose as much of this local sickness as she can – beginning with the truth about Clodia’s death.

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Praise for Lindsey Davis and the Flavia Albia series

‘Davis’s prose is a lively joy, and Flavia’s Rome is sinister and gloriously real’
The Times on Sunday

‘Davis’s books crackle with wit and knowledge . . . She has the happy knack of making the reader feel entirely immersed in Rome’