One virgin too many
(Book)

"Rome's top shamus Marcus Didius Falco finds himself in a foul situation when he's appointed Procurer of Sacred Poultry. Morosely baby-sitting geese and stewing about his future, he's about to make a classic mistake: He doesn't take his newest client seriously." "The girl, a perfect doll, had waited for him on his doorstep, tapping a tiny foot in a golden sandal, her loyal retainers hanging about within earshot. Her voice was petulant when she told him someone in her family wanted to kill her; he should have noticed the fear in her eyes." "With domestic troubles of his own, Falco sent her home. For one thing, a lion had eaten his brother-in-law, leaving his sister and her children impoverished. For another, the sweet young thing wanting to hire him was only six years old. That was before Gaia Laelia, the leading candidate to become the next Vestal Virgin living in the sanctum santorum, disappeared." "Hounded by his own guilt and the "I told you so's" of his all-too-perceptive wife, Helena, Falco joins the hunt, both helped and hindered by Helena's brother and his clueless new partner. The twisting trail will lead to a gruesome murder and into the cold-blooded intrigues of those who practice rites both sacred and profane. Here, in the temples of Rome, piety is a cousin to madness, and lust and religious fervor are just a hair's breadth apart. And here a little girl's life can be cut tragically short - not by Clotho, Lachesis, or Atropos, but by an all too human hand."--BOOK JACKET