THREE HANDS IN THE FOUNTAIN

It’s the reign of Emperor Vespasian in first century Rome, and informer/spy/p.i. Marcus Didius Falco (Time to Depart, 1997, etc.) has taken a partner—longtime friend Petronius Longus, dismissed from Rome’s Fourth Cohort unit of police; living apart from wife Silvia; and infatuated with Milvia, wife of gangster Florius. (Falco, meanwhile, is happy with his loving, clever Helena and their baby daughter.) The new partners are by the Tailor Lane water fountain one day when a human hand is found by a worker. It soon develops that various body parts, all female, have been turning up in the aqueduct system over a period of time, always after one of Rome’s frequent festivals. The Curator of Aqueducts is now taking the matter seriously, putting it in the hands of his Chief Spy Anacrites (anathema to Falco), assistant engineer Bolanus, and ex-consul Julius Frontinus, just appointed to the governorship of Britain. The third hand to surface wears a ring, and before long an identification is made: the victim was Asinia, wife of Caius Cicurrus, who never arrived home after attending one of the Festival Games. It becomes apparent to the investigating team that what’s happening must have its origins in the countryside and hills outside Rome where the Aqueducts are fed. Falco makes extensive forays into the area, looking for those citizens who frequent Rome at Festival times, but it takes the disappearance of Claudia, fiancÇe of Helena’s brother, to send Falco on a last journey to the countryside—and to a final confrontation with a killer. Falco, less of a wise-guy in this outing, is mellowing with his new family. The puzzle and its resolution are only marginally convincing, but the evocation of ancient Rome—almost street by street’should prove a treasure to readers interested in the era.