Scandal Takes a Holiday is a crime

Crime fiction

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

 novel by Lindsey Davis

Lindsey Davis

Lindsey Davis is an English historical novelist, best known as the author of the Falco series of crime stories set in ancient Rome and its empire.-Biography:...

.

Plot introduction

Set in Ostia Antica

Ostia Antica

Ostia Antica is a large archeological site, close to the modern suburb of Ostia , that was the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, which is approximately 30 km to the northeast. "Ostia" in Latin means "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but, due to...

 during AD 76, Scandal Takes a Holiday stars Marcus Didius Falco

Marcus Didius Falco

Marcus Didius Falco is the central character and narrator in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis. Using the concepts of modern detective stories , Davis portrays the world of the Roman Empire under Vespasian...

, Informer and Imperial Agent. It is the sixteenth in her Falco

Marcus Didius Falco

Marcus Didius Falco is the central character and narrator in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis. Using the concepts of modern detective stories , Davis portrays the world of the Roman Empire under Vespasian...

 series.

Explanation of the novel's title

The title is reference to the 'holiday' taken by Infamia, gossip columnist of the Daily Gazette.

Plot summary

Marcus Didius Falco

Marcus Didius Falco

Marcus Didius Falco is the central character and narrator in a series of novels by Lindsey Davis. Using the concepts of modern detective stories , Davis portrays the world of the Roman Empire under Vespasian...

 and Helena Justina travel to Ostia Antica

Ostia Antica

Ostia Antica is a large archeological site, close to the modern suburb of Ostia , that was the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, which is approximately 30 km to the northeast. "Ostia" in Latin means "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but, due to...

, ostensibly on holiday. However, Falco is forced to confess to Petronius - present there on secondment - that he is in fact investigating the disappearance of Infamia, the pen name of the scribe who writes the gossip column for the Daily Gazette. He is at first believed to be merely a drunken truant, however investigations uncover some murky secrets. Piracy

Piracy

Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...

 and other criminal traditions, long believed stamped out, are apparently alive and well in the region.

Family and associates

• A. Camillus Aelianus - Older brother of Helena
• Albia - British girl adopted by Helena
• Decimus Camillus Verus - Father of Helena
• Fulvius - The "black sheep" of the Falco family
• Gaius Baebius - Husband of Junia
• Geminus - Father of Falco, Auctioneer
• Helena Justina - Wife of Falco, and daughter of the Senator
  Roman Senate
  The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
  
   Decimus Camillus Verus
• Julia Junilla and Sosia Favonia - Daughters of Falco and Helena
• Julia Justa - Mother of Helena
• Junia - Falco's sister
• Junilla Tacita - Mother of Falco
• Maia Favonia - Falco's widowed sister
• Marcus Didius Falco - Informer and Imperial Agent
• Q. Camillus Justinus - Younger brother of Helena

Staff of the Daily Gazette

• Diocles - Correspondent
• Holconius - Political reporter
• Mutatus - Sports commentator
• Vestina

Vigiles

• Brunnus - Leader of the VI Cohort's Ostia detachment
• Fusculus - Member of the IV Cohort
• Lucius Petronius Longus - Friend of Falco and Vigiles Officer
• Marcus Rubella - Tribune of the IV Cohort
• Passus - Member of the IV Cohort
• Rusticus - Recruiting officer
• Virtus - Slave

Others in Ostia

• Aline - Ship's owner
• Antemon - Sea captain
• Banno Ship's owner
• Caninus - Naval attaché
• Cotys - Illyrian
• Cratidas - Cilician
• Damagoras - Cilician
• Lygon - Cilician
• Posidonius - Importer
• Privatus - President of the Builders Guild
• Pullia - Cilician
• Rhodope - Daughter of Posidonius
• Theopompus - Illyrian
• Zeno - Cilician

Major themes

• Investigation into the disappearance of a gossip columnist.
• Investigation into possible piracy around Ostia.

Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

• Set in Ostia Antica
  Ostia Antica
  Ostia Antica is a large archeological site, close to the modern suburb of Ostia , that was the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, which is approximately 30 km to the northeast. "Ostia" in Latin means "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but, due to...
  
   in AD 76, during the reign of Emperor Vespasian
  Vespasian
  Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
  
  .

Release details

• 2003, UK, Century Hardback ISBN 0-7126-2587-9
• 2004, UK, Arrow, Paperback ISBN 780099 445289
• UK Audio BBC AudioBooks read by Jamie Glover Cassettes ISBN 1405600624 CDs 1405671718
• 2004, US, Mysterious Press, Hardback ISBN 0-89296-812-5
• 2006, US, St Martins Press, Paperback ISBN 0-312-94040-8

Sources, references, external links, quotations

Author's Official Website