In the third, and final, book of the ‘Partners’ trilogy, Falco was intended to work with Helena’s nice brother, Justinus. That seemed too good to be true, so he acquires a trickier helper – not to mention both his previous partners, Petronius and Anacrites, who hover around hoping to see him fall flat on his face.

An appeal to help a young child draws him reluctantly into the world of the Roman state cults – in which Fortune has given him a role of his own, though as he says, up to his boot-thongs in goose shit. A member of the Arval Brethren is murdered in their Sacred Grove, causing a sinister cover-up by the establishment, while the Vestal Virgins Lottery looks equally murky and is complicated by an association with Queen Berenice of Judaea that has attracted gossip.

Hemmed in by patriarchal priests and their inbred offspring, grappled by Virgins without consciences, and imprisoned under threat of execution, Falco was already in enough trouble trying to look after his widowed sister and her heartbroken children – and that’s before he has to dangle upside down over a very deep hole, supported only by the three partners who may be only too happy to drop him …