Three Hands in the Fountain

When a man cleaning a fountain in Rome discovers a severed human hand, Marcus Didius Falco and his partner Petronius Longus recognize the work of a serial killer preying on young women and disposing of pieces of the bodies throughout the city's two hundred miles of aqueduct. The Roman authorities prefer silence to panic, but Falco and Petro push the investigation forward toward the Games, where the killer may strike again in a crowd of a quarter million. Lindsey Davis's ninth Falco novel places an ancient Rome procedural on genuinely horrifying ground.

Christian Rodska has been a reliable narrator for the Falco series, maintaining Falco's sardonic first-person voice with consistency and the right undercurrent of dark humor. The Roman setting comes to life in his hands, and he handles the novel's escalation from wry detective comedy to genuine urgency with good instincts. At just over eleven hours, this is a satisfying entry that uses the series' historical setting to maximum effect.