Pandora’s Boy, by Lindsey Davis

Asked to look into the death of a teenage girl by her husband’s annoying first wife, Flavia Albia’s first instinct is to refuse. But then her husband goes missing; seemingly an after-effect of being struck by lightning on their wedding day, and the young informer needs a distraction. Clodia ran with an older, flighty crowd with complicated revolving love lives; was she poisoned by a love potion? The local witch/medium/ cosmetician is under suspicion by the vigils but has gang connections and can’t be pinned down. Albia must enlist the help of a dodgy, but familiar, lettuce seller to solve the mystery and obtain justice for Clodia. And Falco makes a welcome cameo appearance. As usual Davis draws clever parallels between social issues and mores in ancient Rome and those in contemporary life. This time, spoiled, privileged youth are targeted – all they would need is smart phones to fit right in to modern times. A dark tone pervades the story, which ends with a harbinger of criminal gang warfare across the city of Rome. At the very least the newlyweds finally get their household into some order, which should reassure their relatives and augurs well for their marriage.