The back cover blurb:

"A frightened child approaches Roman informer Marcus Didius Falco, pleading for help. Nobody believed Gaia's story that a relation wants to kill her - and neither does he. Beset by his own family troubles, by his new responsibilities as Procurator of the Sacred Poultry, and by the continuing search for a new partmer, he turns her away. Immediately he regrets it. Gaia has been selected as the new Vestal Virgin, and when she disappears Falco is officially asked to investigate. Finding Gaia is then a race against time, ending in Falco's most terrifying exploit yet ... "

Mad priests, murderous Vestal Virgins and a lost child. Falco is called in to find the child who has been selected as the next Vestal Virgin ... but she has to be present to receive the honour. Nux is awarded the laurels, or at least (hopefully) a large bone ...

Left on a bench in Napoleon Street