Great picture of ancient Rome
I found the Falco series after reading some of Steven Saylor's Gordianus the Finder books (also recommended).
This book paints a pretty good picture of life in 1st Century C.E. Rome.
There are good times, bad times, fun times, sad times and mostly poor times for Marcus Didius Falco. Falco is a private informer which is fairly low on the Roman social pecking order. He does, however, beneath a hard exterior seem to be a likeable sort of guy.
In this book Falco finds himself embroiled in a plot to overthrow newly installed Emperor Vespasian. I won't go into details so as not to spoil the story, but the conspiracy forces Falco to the ends of the Empire in Britannium where he escorts home a Senator's daughter with secrets of her own.
The pace is rapid and the dialogue is stacatto and as taut as anything Dashiell Hammet or Raymond Chandler ever wrote.
I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
