Sharing a ewer of Spanish red with his old friend and new partner Petronius Longus, Marcus Didius Falco is on the spot when a man cleaning the local fountain makes a gruesome discovery: a human hand that suggests its owner met a terrifying fate. Naturally, Falco and Petro, formerly of the Vigiles, want to seize on it as their first big case. The officials of Rome, however, prefer to hush up the incident, since a population that riots at the drop of a toga might run wild if body parts are polluting their drinking water.
Soon other delicate, dismembered hands are being found in Rome’s two hundred miles of aqueduct. Falco and his partner suspect a serial killer is at large, linked to public festivals, and likely to strike again at the upcoming Roman Games. Even a detective as astute as Falco may not spot a twisted mind in a crowd of 250,000. And if Falco loses this race with time, another pretty victim will make a deadly splash.
Lindsey Davis was born and raised in Birmingham, England. After taking an English degree at Oxford and working for the civil service for thirteen years, she “ran away to be a writer.” Her internationally bestselling novels featuring ancient Roman detective Marcus Didius Falco include Venus in Copper, The Iron Hand of Mars, Nemesis and Alexandria. She is also the author of Rebels and Traitors, set during the English Civil War. Davis is the recipient of the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, the highest accolade for crime writers, as well as the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award and the Authors' Club Best First Novel award.
Christian Rodska has worked in theaters all over the United Kingdom and in the West End, and he has recorded hundreds of radio plays and poetry programs. Over the last thirty years he has worked regularly in television, from early programs such as Follyfoot and Doomwatch, to Taggart, Sharpe, and Wycliffe. He has recorded over one hundred audiobooks and has won several awards, including fourteen AudioFile Earphones Awards.