Marcus Didius Falco is a cynical, hard-boiled investigator from therough end of Rome. He does a bit of everything, from politicalinvestigating to art-fraud work. But he never seems to make enough moneyto move his family out of a seedy tenement. But fresh from his adventurein “Two for the Lions” in North Africa, he finds newrespectability. His efforts are rewarded when he is appointed to a postin the religious hierarchy of government cults and becomes keeper of thecity’s sacred geese. Now Falco wants nothing more than to spend timerelaxing at home. But all too soon he finds himself caught up in themurder of a member of one of the sacred brotherhoods and thedisappearance of the most likely new candidate for the Order of VestalVirgins.Lindsey Davis’s look at the complexities of Roman society and attitudeshas rarely been so impressively on display as in this engrossinghistorical mystery.