Flavia is the young daughter of a sea captain in Ostia, a Roman seaport. Always good at finding things, her search for a missing signet ring (taken, she deduces, by a magpie) leads Flavia to meet some extraordinary people – Jewish neighbour Jonathan (who, along with his physician father and older sister, are some of Rome’s first Christians), African slave girl Nubia, and a mute beggar named Lupus. Together they solve an even bigger mystery, the first in a series of adventures set in varying parts of Rome’s empire.
I’ve long been partial to this era, the result of five years of Latin studies at school, and Lawrence combines historical detail with a gripping plot, well developed and clearly distinguished characters, convincing sense of place, and a little unobtrusive education about a time very different from our own. Flavia is naïve but quick-witted and kind, and though it would have been nice to have some sense that she wasn’t a complete loner before meeting Jonathan, she is a fairly well rounded creation.
I bought the sequel, The Secrets of Vesuvius, (not realising at the time that it was not only part of a series but also not the first) several years ago, and am delighted not only to have found the first but also to have so thoroughly enjoyed it. - Alex
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