Desperate Undertaking

The play's the thing in the latest Lindsey Davis Flavia Albia mystery, Desperate Undertaking (#1,092).  The death of one or more of a classical play's characters serves as the inspiration for a series of diabolical murders.  The target seems to be a troupe of actors in Rome celebrating the holidays, and the site of the murders are the theaters scattered throughout Domitian's Rome.

Flavia Albia becomes involved when a former member of the acting troupe comes looking for Marcus Didius Falco, Albia's adopted father.  They had known each other when her parents were touring Syria.  Davos wants to find out who is targeting the members of the acting company in such a vicious manner.  Flavia Albia feels obliged to prove that her investigatory skills are just as keen as Falco's.  Maybe that was a trifle ambitious, but it's too late to turn back now; the murderer (or murderers!) has Albia in his sights.  It's solve or die!

I found this mystery particularly interesting, having recently watched the History Channel's series on the Colisseum.  Although the Colisseum was not used for staging (!) a crime in Desperate Undertaking, the explanations of the workings of that amazing building certainly aided in visualizing how the murderers worked out the details of their crimes.  I must admit, I breathed a sigh of relief when it was finally all over!