Like all good mystery writers of historical fiction, Lindsey Davis attends to historical details and creates engaging characters in a complex plot. In her Marcus Didius Falco series, she covers the known world, with her gumshoe traveling to England, as well as the Roman provinces of Asia and Africa. The first five in Davis' Falco series deal with metals: silver, bronze, copper, iron, and gold.
1. The Silver Pigs
When Sosia Camilla is murdered, her uncle, a senator, hires Falco to find out who murdered her. Falco travels to Britain for this job, meets the senator's bad-tempered daughter, Helena Justina, and works as a slave in a silver mine to learn who has been bilking the emperor.2. Shadows in Bronze. 1990.
The plot continuing directly from the first book of Lindsey Davis' Falco historical fiction mystery series, the emperor (Vespasian) and informer Falco are convinced of a conspiracy in "Shadows in Bronze." Falco travels through the Roman holiday spots with his respectable friend Petronius.
3. Venus in Copper. 1991.
In Lindsey Davis' "Venus is Copper," the man whom Falco is hired to protect dies and then Falco is re-hired by the chief suspect. On the domestic front, which is one of the charms of the Falco series, the plebian Marcus Didius Falco asks his beloved Helena, a senator's daughter, to live with him.4. The Iron Hand of Mars. 1992.
In this Lindsey Davis adventure, Marcus Didius Falco is to put an end to the rebellion of Civilis and Veleda in Germania -- with the help of Nero's barber, while Titus sets his cap at Falco's beloved Helena.5. Poseidon's Gold. 1993.
Commissioned by his mother to help exonerate her late oldest son, Falco reluctantly works with his much maligned father. Falco's work enables him to come up with the money he needs to buy rank so he can feel worthy of his beloved senator's daughter, Helena Justina.