The Iron Hand of Mars

This is the fourth of Davis's novels featuring ancient Roman detective Marcus Didius Falco (Anton Lesser). The BBC is known worldwide for its full-cast dramatizations, and this gutsy interpretation does not disappoint. Falco is dispatched to rainy, forested Germania, where he must sweet-talk a Celtic priestess to avert a rebellion, find a missing legate, and track down his errant girlfriend, Helena Justina (playfully characterized by Anna Madeley), who disappears after he forgets her birthday. All this takes place while Falco is accompanied by a barber he suspects of being a spy AND while he is lugging the cumbersome iron hand of Mars, the new standard for the fearsome 14th legion. C.A.T. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine