Scandal Takes a Holiday
1st edition
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| Author | Lindsey Davis |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Marcus Didius Falco |
| Genre | Historical mystery crime novel |
| Publisher | Century |
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Publication date
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2003 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 283 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 57751578 |
| Preceded by | The Accusers |
| Followed by | See Delphi and Die |
Scandal Takes a Holiday is a 2003 historical mystery crime novel by Lindsey Davis and the 16th book of the Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries series. Set in Ostia Antica during AD 76, the novel stars Marcus Didius Falco, informer and imperial agent. The title refers to the "holiday" taken by Infamia, gossip columnist of the Daily Gazette.
A long and complicated case awaits Falco and Lucius Petronius Longinus (or Petro' for short) on the streets of the port town of Ostia, accompanied by Maia, Helena and Falco's daughters — Albia, Julia and Favonia. Petro' is on the lookout for Balbinus Florius, a dangerous mobster last seen in Britain, while Falco is on the lookout for a missing gossip columnist named Diocles, an Imperial freedman known by the pen name of "Infamia" (Latin: "scandal", "calumny"). A young boy named Zeno approaches Petro', and tells him that "his mother won't wake up". Zeno's mother is found unconscious and drooling, and Maia is sent to nurse her - only to end up with a black eye when the woman, Pullia, wakes up. When asked why he told them, Zeno replies to Petro' that his uncle Lygon told Zeno that "the vigiles would want to know" if Pullia wouldn't wake up.
Infamia's colleagues Mutatus and Holconius say that Diocles is gifted but dissolute, and believe that he is playing truant, but Falco suspects otherwise. Continuing on the Infamia case, Falco calls on Diocles' landlady, who admits that she has no idea where he has gone to. Falco bribes one of her slaves, Titus, to hand over Diocles' possessions, which but for one note tablet marked with the name "Damagoras" and another engraved with a strange grid-shaped pattern, hand no conclusive leads to Falco. Much for Falco's chargrin, the one man in all of Ostia who seems ready to talk about Damagoras and who he is turns out to be none other than Falco's brother-in-law Gaius Baebius, who Falco loathes greatly.
Gaius leads Falco to a large estate up north near Portus, where they are assaulted and confined (and Gaius belatedly tells Falco that Damagoras is rumoured to have been a pirate), and brought out later to meet its ostensibly prosperous owner. Damagoras surprisingly treats them hospitably in the opulent surroundings of his villa, and reveals that he was born in Cilicia (a region in Asia Minor notorious for piracy) but when questioned by Falco about being a pirate, Damagoras instantly denies being one or being connected with them, saying he is a "retired sea captain" who contacted Deiocles to "write his memoirs". Falco is not convinced by Damagoras, however, and decides that Damagoras needs to be inspected more closely.
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