Flavia Albia

Created by Lindsey Davis

After twenty bestselling novels following Falco Didius Marcus down the mean streets of Ancient Rome, best-selling author Lindsey Davis spun off a new series featuring his adopted daughter FLAVIA ALBIA. There’s a distinct whiff of chick-lit trendiness here — Albia, now 28, is a decidedly modern girl (well, for 89 A.D., anyway), a professional woman with her own business, her own apartment, and her own unique fashion sense, free to live — and love — as she pleases, but don’t expect Sex and the City with togas.

That’s because Albia’s taken over Dad’s old Fountain Court office in the Surbura district, and is now working as a “private informer” herself. She’s a little angrier and more impulsive than the old man, perhaps, but just as outraged by hypocrisy and corruption as dear old Dad ever was, and just as adept at spouting her own era-appropriate Chandlerisms, whether it’s a display of crushed idealism disguised as cynicism (“Even the Vestals weren’t virgins anymore”) or cracking wise with a nicely played simile (“I was in there like a louse up a tramp’s tunic”).

Her feisty attitude and stubbornly independent streak gives her a punkish charm that’ll be interesting to chart as the series progresses, and makes her an ideal traveling companion as we once more revel in the colorful characters and sharply etched period detail Davis is known for.

Lindsey Davis was born in England, and studied at Oxford. She currently lives in London, and writes full time. Past Chair of the Crimewriters’ Association and a Vice President of the Classical Association, she was Chair of the UK Society of Authors (2012) She has won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the Dagger in the Library, and a Sherlock award for Falco as Best Comic Detective. She has also been awarded the Premio Colosseo for enhancing the image of Rome, and the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement as a mystery writer.

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Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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