Scandal Takes a Holiday is the 16th in the Falco series featuring informer extraordinaire Marcus Didius Falco. Marcus is in Ostia, ostensibly on a relaxing holiday but when his aristocratic girlfriend Helena arrives with the rest of the family and with a batch of old copies of the Daily Gazette Falco is forced to divulge to his old friend Petronius that he is actually there for a totally different reason.
Falco has been asked by fellow scribes of the Daily Gazette to find the infamous ‘Infamia,’ the gossip columnist who has gone missing. However, there is more to his disappearance than meets the eye.
Petro, who is now cohabiting with Falco’s sister Maia, also has his hands full with various members of the Falco clan who decide to stay with them since they are temporary residing in a rather large and wealthy villa.
Lindsey Davis has done her fans proud with this latest novel. We get to see more of Falco’s immediate family and how, despite the fact that they are as irritating as ever, there is a closeness between the lot of them. There is also an air of respectability surrounding Falco that is hilarious as he tries to take no notice of it.
Falco’s witticisms are still a joy behold and in Scandal Takes a Holiday
there is no let up. For ardent and long term readers of this series, this is
an excellent addition and a welcome read for the summer. Wherever Falco is,
be it on his home turf or abroad, the reader knows that they are in for a first-rate
story that will charm the socks off you. Scandal Takes a Holiday reinforces
the reason why Lindsey Davis and Falco have such a huge fan base. There is just
nobody quite like them. They are on top of their game!
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Ayo Onatade Other books in the series are Silver Pigs, Shadows In Bronze,
Venus In Copper, Iron Hand Of Mars, Poseidon's Gold, Last Act in Palmyra, Time
to Depart, Dying Light in Corduba, Three Hands in the Fountain, Two For The
Lions, One Dead Virgin, Ode To a Banker, Time to Depart, Two For the Lions,
One Virgin Too Many, Corpse in the Cask, A Body in the Bathhouse, The Jupiter
Myth, The Accusers