Arrow Books Saturnalia Davis Lindsey

'I came fully equipped with the old prejudice that anything to do with Egypt involved corruption and deceit.' • AD 77. Egypt was the destination of choice for Roman tourists, being home to not one but two Wonders of the Ancient World, a Centre of Culture, and people with exotic habits • Unfortunately, when Marcus Didius Falco pays a visit he discovers it's also a hotbed of schemers and murderers. When the Head Librarian dies in suspicious circumstances, the Roman authorities are only too happy to dump the case on one of the Empire's most celebrated investigators - all adding up to a typical Falco family vacation

In the high summer of AD 77, laid-back detective Marcus Didius Falco is called upon to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a middle-aged couple who supplied statues to Falco's father, Geminus. The Claudii, nptorious freedmen who live rough in the pestilential Pontine Marshes, are the prime suspects. Falco, beset by personal problems, finds it a relief to consider someone else's misfortunes • When a mutilated corpse turns up near Rome, Falco and his vigiles friend Petronius investigate, only for the Chief Spy, Anacrites, to snatch their case away from them just as they are making progress.As his rivalry with Falco escalates, it emerges that the violent Claudii have acquired corrupt protection at the highest level. Making further enquiries after they have been warned off can only be dangerous - but will this stop Falco and Petronius? • Egged on by the slippery bureaucrats who hate Anacrites, the dogged friends dig deeper while a psychotic killer keeps taking more victims, and the shocking truth creeps closer and closer to home

‘The first concern of an author is to do down his colleagues.’ • In the long, hot Roman summer of AD 74, Falco, private informer and spare-time poet, gives a reading for his family and friends. Things get out of hand as usual. The event is taken over by Aurelius Chrysippus, a wealthy Greek banker and patron to a group of struggling writers, who offers to publish Falco’s work. A visit to the Chrysippus scriptorium implicates Falco in a gruesome literary murder, so when commissioned to investigate, Falco is forced to accept • Lindsey Davis’s twelfth novel wittily explores Roman publishing and banking, taking us from the jealousies of authorship and the mire of patronage to the darker financial world, where default can have fatal consequences…

Memories are short on HMS Royston - they have to be • As mother ship to a battered, war-torn bunch of MTBs she must carry out her vital role whatever the conditions, whatever the risk • Sub-Lieutenant Royce is newly assigned to MTB 1991, joining a crew already seasoned by death and fear • Now with only three months' sea-experience behind him, Royce must learn the job the hard way - in the tough school of combat • A classic tale of naval warfare from Douglas Reeman, the all-time bestselling master of naval fiction, who served with the Royal Navy on convoy duty in the Atlantic, the Arctic and the North Sea. He has written dozens of naval books under his own name and the pseudonym Alexander Kent, including the famous Richard Bolitho books set during the Napoleonic Wars

In the 60s, Ronnie and Reggie Kray were Britain’s most notorious gangsters. With violence and intimidation they were the kings of London. They sipped champagne with celebrities and rubbed shoulders with politicians. They were untouchable • Until they weren’t • After an undercover operation, the Kray twins were found guilty of murder and were sentenced to life in prison. They were just 35 years old • But once inside, the twins were determined to make their stay truly historic. The Twins began earning more money inside than they ever did on the streets. They sold branded t-shirts and memorabilia and they allowed books and films to be published about their lives. They didn't stop • Whilst locked up, their mother died as did their brother Charlie, and their associates and friends all fell away

Anthony Powell's brilliant twelve novel sequence chronicles the lives of over three hundred characters, and is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England. It is unrivalled for its scope, its humour and the enormous pleasure it has given to generations • Volume 4 contains the last three novels in the sequence: Books do Furnish a Room; Temporary Kings; Hearing Secret Harmonies

Without even noticing, Esther Fairchild has become locked into routine • Living with her adored brother, Christian, she divides her time between illustrating children's books, nightly shifts as a waitress, weekly visits to her father and fortnightly meetings with her married lover • Then one day she encounters a face in the crowd which jolts her out of her mundane existence and makes her question both her life and the past that has helped to shape it. Memories she had long chosen to forget begin to resurface. Memories of an eccentric childhood in a large and shabby house, where the children were left to fend for themselves within the loose boundaries of their parents' unorthodox values. A chaotic existence peopled by a rich collection of feckless 'guests'

Nobody was poisoned at the dinner for the Society of Olive Oil Producers of Baetica, though in retrospect this was quite a surprise • Inimitable sleuth Marcus Didius Falco is back with a vengeance. On one night, a man is killed and Rome's Chief of Spies left for dead. This leaves no one except Falco to conduct the investigation

‘What did he eat last? Whom did he eat, in fact?’ • Lumbered with working alongside reptilian Chief Spy Anacrites, Falco has the perfect plan to make money – he will assist Vespasian in the Emperor’s ‘Great Census’ of AD 73. His potential fee could finally allow him to join the middle ranks and be worthy of long-suffering Helena Justina • Unexpectedly confronted with the murder of a man-eating lion, Falco is distracted from his originaltask, uncovering a bitter rivalry between the gladiators’ trainers. With one star gladiator dead, Falco is forced to investigate and the trail leads from Rome to the blood-soaked sand of the arena in North Africa

Rome, AD 71: Against his better judgement, Marcus Didius Falco secretly disposes of a decayed corpse for the Emperor Vespasian, then heads for the beautiful Bay of Naples with his best friend Petronius. It's an opportunity to forget his doomed romance with the beautiful and bright Helena Justina • He conveniently forgets to mention to his companion that this will be no holiday - they have been sent to investigate the murderous members of a failed coup, now sunning themselves in luxurious villas and on fancy yachts • Nor does the idyllic seaside location help matters with Helena. The deeper he probes, the more it seems she is inextricably connected to the elite plotters, in ways that the smitten Falco cannot bear to contemplate

Set against the terrible struggle of the English Civil War and the dark plots of the Commonwealth, Rebels and Traitors tells of soldiers, adventurers, aristocrats and kings, tradesmen, politicians, radicals and scavengers - and the hopes and dreams that carried them through one of the most turbulent eras of English history. Men who never imagined fighting a war gladly risk their lives; women strive to keep families and businesses together through years of deprivation; innocents are caught up in bloodshed and terror • After years of struggle Gideon Jukes and Juliana Lovell, on opposite sides of the Parliamentarian/Royalist divide, are brought together by fate on one of the significant dates of the struggles and its aftermath. After adversity and loss, their mutual attraction may one day bring the comfort and companionship for which they both have yearned through a disastrous war

Petronius Longus, captain of the Aventine watch and Falco's oldest friend, has finally nailed one of Rome's top criminals. Under Roman law citizens are not imprisoned but are allowed 'time to depart' into exile outside the Empire. One dark and gloomy dawn Petro and Falco put the evil Balbinus aboard ship • But soon after, an outbreak of robbery and murder suggest a new criminal ring has moved into Balbinus' territory. Petro and Falco must descend into the underworld of Vespasian's Rome to investigate