Last Rites (Marcus Corvinus)

‘Right,’ I said. ‘So what can I do for the Chief Vestal, pal?’ The Axeman was flexing his hands like he was squeezing a couple of these wooden balls wrestlers use to strengthen their grip. ‘I’m to take you to the Galba place,’ he said. ‘There’s been a death.’ ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘You care to tell me whose?’ ‘One of the Ladies.’ Shit. I sat back. One of the Ladies, eh? For Torquata’s Axeman that could mean only one thing. The dead woman was a Vestal. Asked to investigate the death of a young woman during the closed-door rites of the Good Goddess, Corvinus knows he is on very sensitive ground. Particularly if it isn’t murder. The sixth book in the Marcus Corvinus series.