"On this dull, rainy day in early November, even Florence looks sullen and unlovely. But that is not, surely, why an elderly Jewish architect walked into the River Arno. Nor does it offer any answers as to the disappearance of Veronica Hutton, a reckless young heiress killing time till marriage at one of the city's many international art academies. And most of all, the weather does not explain why both these cases should end up on the desk of Sandro...

Loni Meadows is the beautiful, unstable director of an arts foundation headquartered in a crumbling castle outside Florence. When Meadows dies under peculiar circumstances, it becomes clear that almost everyone at Castello Orfeo would have been pleased to see her dead. Years ago, as a low-level member of the Florence police force, Sandro Cellini, now working sporadically as a private eye, ran a routine background check on Meadows, and he hopes that...

It's January of 1704, and Matthew Corbett continues his mission to Italy, accompanied by Hudson Greathouse and former enemy Professor Fell. They seek Brazio Valeriani and information about the mirror created by his father, the sorcerer Ciro. Legend claims the mirror can be used to summon demons from beyond. But fate has other plans for Matthew as their ship is disabled by a pod of whales, and they seek refuge on a secluded island. The islanders welcome...

"In Lindsey Davis's next book in the beloved Flavia Albia Series, Desperate Undertaking, a mad killer (or killers!) is strewing bodies around in the most gruesome of manners and, true to form, it is up to Flavia Albia to determine what is really going on and stop this bacchanal of death. In the first century, under Domitian's reign, strange and brutal goings on are nothing new in Rome. Flavia Albia, daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, has taken over...

When the scribe of ancient Rome's daily scandal column goes missing in seaside Ostia, investigator Marcus Didius Falco learns that the scribe was working on a story about an underworld kidnapping racket involving pirates.