I Read Books: Time To Depart
Time To Depart
Arriving back in Rome after his adventures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Falco learns that his pal Petro has managed to convict a gangster Balbinius Pius. Thanks to a witness (his accountant who has been diagnosed with a fatal disease) and a crusading magistrate Balbinius has been sentenced to death. However Roman Law does not allow citizens to be detained; the way out of this contradiction is that in the case of capital charges they are given Time To Depart. Exile. Petro is hopeful that there will be some calm on the crime and policing front for a few months at least.
He's wrong. Almost immediately there is a daring raid on the Emporium, the great wholesale market down by the river. Unfortunately this includes the cargo of glass Falco’s father got his Falco’s girlfriend to buy in Syria. His father wants Falco to find it, and doesn’t intend to pay, and worse still he’ll do it as his expensive birthday present for Helena is in the cargo. Roped in to the official investigation of who the new crime lord is, Falco is informed that they are worried about corruption in the watch, and ordered not to tell Petro.
There’s more problems back at home. Helena might be
pregnant, and even if she isn’t Falco wants to move to a better home. His
landlord is marrying Lenia, who runs the laundry on the ground floor of the
block, and as she has no living family asks old friend Falco to act as priest
at the wedding. There’s more problems in the area, thieves and a racket of
child abduction. Crimes from the smallest to the largest, family and personal concerns, all against the back drop of ancient Rome.
Read This: An enjoyable 1st century crime
thriller, the threads coming together a little neatly though perhaps that’s the
nature of organised crime.
Don’t Read This: Neither crime nor Roman history are for you
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