Rome, 58 AD. 

Aemilius Valerius is on the up and up. His reputation has been rehabilitated, he has established a fledgling career, and he has new friends in very powerful places. When one of those new friends, the poet Lucan, is attacked, Valerius is given an offer he can’t refuse: find the culprits before they strike again. But when every man in Lucan’s circle of poets and playwrights and artists is potentially a suspect, each one of them competing for the emperor’s favor, how is Valerius supposed to tell the difference between petty jealousy and murderous rage? 

Meanwhile, the Vigile Junius Atreus has his own violent crime to investigate, and the more he and Valerius dig around, the murkier and more dangerous things become.

Can Valerius and Atreus solve the crimes and save their reputations—and their lives—before the Juvenalia, Nero’s birthday extravaganza of poetry, plays, musical performances, and dance? On the plus side, if they get murdered, at least they won’t have to sit through that.