The Sirens of Surrentum
First edition cover
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| Author | Caroline Lawrence |
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| Cover artist | Peter Sutton Fred van Deelan |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Roman Mysteries |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Orion Books |
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Publication date
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3 March 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 214 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 76967092 |
| LC Class | PZ7.L425 Si 2007 |
| Preceded by | The Fugitive from Corinth |
| Followed by | The Charioteer of Delphi |
The Sirens of Surrentum is a children's historical novel set in Roman times by Caroline Lawrence. The novel is the eleventh in The Roman Mysteries series.
June, AD 80: When Flavia Gemina's father Marcus leaves on another sea voyage, she and her three friends – Nubia, Jonathan, and Lupus – accept an invitation from their friend Polla Pulchra to spend the rest of the month at her father's luxurious villa in Surrentum. Behind the invitation is a plea for help: Pulchra's mother, Polla Argentaria, seems to fall ill whenever they have houseguests, and Pulchra suspects someone is trying to poison her mother. On the pretext of a matchmaking party, Pulchra has convinced her father to invite all of Pulchra's suspects: three young widows and three bachelors.
Romance is thick in the air: Flavia still nurses a secret love for Pulchra's father, the charismatic Publius Pollius Felix, despite the difference in their ages. She is flustered to find that the male guests include the young lawyer Gaius Valerius Flaccus, who shared a past adventure with them (in The Colossus of Rhodes). Pulchra also takes a shine to Flaccus, even while growing closer to Jonathan. Flavia also meets, for the first time, the young senator's son she has been betrothed to: Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The two do not make a favorable impression on each other, but gradually she is won over by his inquisitive nature and willingness to help in their investigation.
Flavia assigns each member of her new "team" to watch one of the young bachelors or widows, but no obvious suspect turns up. However, their surveillance does reveal the disquieting fact that Felix regularly cheats on his wife, with the female houseguests, the young slave girls, and several women from the nearby town of Baiae (whilst there are no explicit depictions of sexual activity in the novel, there is certain implicit material). They consider whether one of the young widows (or even Felix himself) is trying to poison Polla to make way for a new marriage.
Tranquillus has the idea of consulting a poisoning expert in Baiae, Locusta (purportedly the daughter of the famous poisoner employed by Nero). Locusta says Polla's symptoms are consistent with poisoning by hemlock, which shows that the poisoner must be an amateur: hemlock is only lethal if used in the correct dose, and when it is fresh. Locusta draws the conclusion that Polla has built up a resistance to hemlock because of this.
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