ODE TO A BANKER by Davis, Lindsey

New York, 2001, Mysterious press, first US edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 6x9, VG/VG condition, 372 pages, 1 map. THE MARCUS DIDIUS FALCO MYSTERY SERIES.....................................Lindsey Davis's mysteries featuring the Sam Spade of Imperial Rome, Marcus Didius Falco, are international bestsellers, with her vivid depictions of the Eternal City in A.D. 74—from the exalted oratory of the Forum to the blood lust of the amphitheaters. Now, in her twelfth novel, Davis sends Falco into a new arena, Rome's literary world, where the death of a publisher proves that ars longa, vita brevis....ODE TO A BANKER............................Can a tough detective have the sensibilities of a poet? When street-smart Marcus Didius Falco is coerced into a public reading of his satires, he couldn't feel worse. Yet his scribbling is met with rousing applause...and an offer by Chrysippus, esteemed banker, patron of the arts, and scroll merchant, to publish his work..........................................Et tu, Brute! A euphoric Falco then discovers that Chrysippus expects to be paid for putting the budding author's work on papyrus. Falco is no Horace, but he has his pride. His ensuing altercation with the publisher makes him a suspect when Chyrsippus is found brutally murdered—a classic body in a library. Fortunately Falco has an alibi, and thanks to his friends in the Watch, he also lands the job as the homicide's official investigator. Murder, no matter how foul, is something Falco can handle even when he's up to his stylus in outraged authors and crafty bankers. But caught between family demands and pressure to wrap up the investigation, Falco relies on a time-honored method: He assembles all the suspects in the same room. He will need all his instincts and skills to find the one crucial clue that can break the case...in a classic whodunit that is Lindsey Davis's most satisfying mystery yet.