Home
/
Fiction
/
Last Act In Palmyra
Last Act In Palmyra
Jul 22, 2025 10:22 AM

Author:Lindsey Davis

Last Act In Palmyra

This gripping and pacy historical mystery is perfect for fans of S. J. Parris, Donna Leon, Steven Saylor and C. J. Sansom. With its wry humour, expert characterisation, vivid descriptions and incredible sense of adventure, you'll be hooked from page one...

'Several cheers for Lindsey Davis... Great fun' - The Times

'The whole thing is splendid. It has everything: mystery, pace, wit, fascinating scholarship ... she brings Imperial Rome to life' - Ellis Peters

'Another excellent Falco book that is difficult to put down' - ***** Reader review

'Astounding' - ***** Reader review

'A fabulous read' - ***** Reader review

'Full marks and happily recommended' - ***** Reader review

******************************************************************

DROWNING IN MYSTERY, DYING ON STAGE

The spirit of adventure calls Marcus Didius Falco on a new spying mission for the Emperor Vespasian to the untamed East. He's picking up extra fees from his old friend Thalia, the snake dancer, as he searches for Sophrona, her lost water organist. With the Chief Spy Anacrites paying his fare, Falco knows anything can go wrong.

A dangerous brush with the Brother, the sinister ruler of Nabataean Petra, sends Falco and his girlfriend Helena on a fast camel-ride to Syria. They join a traveling theatre group, which keeps losing members in non-accidental drownings.

The bad acting and poor audiences are almost as bad as the desert and its scorpions - then as the killer hovers, Falco tries to write a play...

Reviews

A wonderful series of detective novels

—— The Good Book Guide

Several cheers for Lindsey Davis... Great fun

—— The Times

The real queen of crime

—— Guardian

Allingham is the best of mystery writers

—— New Yorker

Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light

—— Agatha Christie

A genuinely terrifying and evocative crime novel... Once you've read it, it's hard to shake off the sense of foreboding that permeates this serial killer story

—— crimefictionlover

In addition to creating a cleverly calibrated and creepy murder mystery, Dymott has also fashioned a neatly tailored exploration of the desperate psychology of loss... This is a cunning, sharp first novel that revels in keeping one in the dark

—— Independent on Sunday

Wholly absorbing

—— Evening Standard

Wonderfully unique

—— The Times

It’s rare to feel so completely inside someone’s head

—— Psychologies

Elanor Dymott's arresting debut...combines the pleasures of a thriller with an elegiac meditation on the trials of youth

—— The Lady

A dark clever campus novel that draws the reader into a skilfully woven web of half-told stories... Crafted and elegantly written

—— Metro

Dymott’s capacity to conjure striking imagery is exceptional. This is more than a murder mystery. It’s an examination of the subjectivity of accounts of truth. It’s a desperately moving love story about a lonely man who finds salvation in another only to have his idyll destroyed. It's a tale of revenge, served cold and deadly

—— Independent

This is a love story, told in reverse, a haunting tale of youth and lost love, and a poetical thriller.A powerful debut and a distinctive voice

—— Tom Hollander

Elanor Dymott’s gorgeous debut novel is a murder mystery that’s also a brilliant meditation on love and memory and loss. Like the Robert Browning poems her characters read at Oxford, the book is spooky, lovesick, dark, and lush, its narrator circling obsessively back on the death at its heart

—— Maile Meloy

An irresistible blast of an opening which never disappoints in a journey into a complex knot of intense and ultimately destructive relationships from which the murder that is the dark core ofThis excellent debut novel distills

—— Jon Snow

A beautiful, lucid nightmare of a book. A mystery of love and murder that is elegantly written, disturbing, always compelling, and lingers long in the mind

—— Adam Foulds

A literary thriller wrapped up in a whodunit love story, Elanor Dymott's debut makes for compulsive reading. The complexity of the plot put me in mind of The Secret History;
it deserves to reach just as wide an audience

—— John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Every Contact Leaves a Trace is beautifully paced, from the graphic event at its start through all its shifting possibilities to its strange, logical conclusion. It is a marvelous book

—— Bernard O’Donoghue

Erudite debut

—— Independent

This murder mystery...gripped me with unusual force... This novel sucks you in beautifully, and will not let you go

—— Evening Standard

This is a class act which unveils its secrets as tantalisingly as a courtesan

—— John Koski , Daily Mail Ireland

Wonderfully evocative of Oxford, this is a love story and a mystery that will keep you guessing

—— Good Book Guide

Part love story, part murder mystery… Dymott’s novel is ample proof of the literary flair that lurks within some lawyers

—— Alex Wade , The Times

One of the best books I’ve read this year

—— Edinburgh Evening News
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved