This is the second in the Falco series of Ancient Rome mysteries. I read the first – The Silver Pigs – a couple of months ago. This one picks up from the end of the previous and ties up a lot of the loose ends. You really do need to have read the first one before reading this one – although the first one is self-contained.

I do like the author’s prose – there are occasionally moments of beauty in the book. Mainly it is the flippant, amusing, commentary from Falco.

I’ll give it a couple of months before I read the next one: I don’t want to feel obliged to go charging through all 10 or 12 in one go.