The latest adventure for glamorous Roman sleuth Claudia. Blackmailed into investigating the murder of a child in south-west Gaul, Claudia is plunged into a bizarre world of nature priestesses, known as the Hundred-Handed. She soon finds there is a darker force at work; the Scorpion, master of disguise, is as cunning as he is ruthless. No one betrays this man and lives. Too late, Claudia discovers it was the Scorpion who lured her to Gaul in the first place . . .
Marilyn Todd's fast paced historical murder mysteries set in the time of Ancient Rome and featuring the beautiful Claudia Seferius are growing in popularity and the author is up there with the David Wishart's, Steven Saylor`s, not forgetting the Lindsey Davis's of the book world. Perhaps to have a woman and an alluring one at that, rather than a man as the sleuth and lead character is a stroke of genius on Todd's part. Claudia Seferius has now become an accomplished wine merchant after taking over the business when her husband died, despite his family openly making it known that they should have the business and not her. But now she has done the unthinkable as far as respectable business goes. She has taken payment from a customer but kept the wine he purchased to sell again. Not a good idea as the irate customer nicknamed the Scorpion has sent a hit man to kill the beautiful Claudia. However, there is a way out for Claudia. The hit man delivers an alternative that Claudia finds more attractive than lying in a pool of blood, or worse. If she can find out who killed his daughter, he will allow Claudia to live. Simple, all Claudia has to do is infiltrate a house, where a matriarchal cut worship nature, keep men as sex slaves and communicate through sign language and then find out who killed the girl. While on the case she is surprised to find her old sparring partner Marcus Orbilio, already at work undercover trying to expose a gang of criminals.
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