The festival of Saturnalia leads both to wild behaviour and serious puzzle-solving in the sixth Roman Mystery.
It is December AD 79. In the Roman port of Ostia braziers are lit, hot spiced wine is brewed and soft fur covers are brought out from cedarwood storage chests. It's the season of Saturnalia, a pagan festival where anything can happen. When a Roman widow begins to show a keen interest in Captain Geminus, his daughter Flavia and her friends have to find out if she really loves him or is just after his money. To do that, Flavia has to undertake the twelve labours of Hercules. And there is a lion on the loose!
Caroline Lawrence is American. She lives with her husband by the river in London and is active as a speaker in schools and at book festivals. She took part in the British Museum's POMPEII LIVE event, giving talks that were streamed to schools all over the UK, and she is the winner of the 2009 CLASSICS ASSOCIATION PRIZE for 'a significant contribution to the public understanding of Classics'. In addition to the 17 novels in the ROMAN MYSTERIES sequence, Caroline Lawrence has written five spin-off titles, all of which have contributed to total UK sales in excess of 1 million copies.
Visit Caroline's website at www.carolinelawrence.com and follow her on Twitter @CarolineLawrenc.