I Read Books: Scandal Takes A Holiday

 

Scandal Takes A Holiday

In Ostia, the port for Rome at the mouth of the Tiber, Falco is looking for a missing person. Infamia, the gossip columnist for the Daily Gazette went on holiday here and has not been heard of since. Also in town are his friend Petronius, with the vigile out-station, here to maintain links with his daughter as his ex-wife lives here. Also here is Maia, Falco’s sister and now Petronius’s lover.

Enough of Falco’s personal life; the town seems to be run by the Builder’s Guild who maintain their own fire-fighting force in competition with the vigils. Also, as everyone know, Pompeii defeated the pirates a century and more ago. So whoever is running a kidnapping ring on newly arrived wives and daughters can’t be pirates. So who is it?

Everyone has an opinion on where Infamia might have gone – sailed away, died, been kidnapped, committed suicide. It turns out he had family here – or he did until recently. When Falco looks into missing persons he discovers the kidnappings, and various unsavoury characters. Including his own family members and an agent from the navy who unofficially investigates pirates (who no longer operate).

Perhaps a little convoluted, a subplot where a kidnapped daughter has fallen in love with one of the not-pirates leads to a large slightly farcical brawl at a funeral, maybe the most entertaining scene. As ever there’s the slightly difficult transitions between gritty crime and general life, dark cynicism and moments of slapstick and high comedy.

Read This: Entertaining crime mystery in 1^st century Rome
Don’t Read This: Whiplashes between abuse, disaster and comic nonsense