Two for the Lions — Lindsey Davis

Marcus Didius Falco, bored with a tax collection job, longs for a good murder. Then someone stabs the Empire's executioner. Feared by all, Leonidas the lion doled out justice with a swift, sure blow... before he ate the offender. Joining the hunt for whoever brought down the king of beasts, Falco is also in the ballpark, so to speak, when someone slays the city's most glamorous gladiator. Determined to solve this high-profile crime, Falco enters the dark, desperate world of those who must kill or be killed for a living. But all roads, including a domestic crisis with his lover Helena, soon lead to Africa, where Rome's lions are procured... and where the most dangerous beast of all waits to prey on his fellow man.