Last Act in Palmyra: The Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries, Book 6

Last Act in Palmyra is the sixth book in the best-selling Falco series by Lindsey Davis.

The spirit of adventure calls Marcus Didius Falco on a new spying mission for Emperor Vespasian to the untamed East. He picks up extra fees from his old friend, Thalia the snake dancer, as he searches for Sophrona, her lost water organist. With the chief spy, Anacrites, paying his fare, Falco knows anything can go wrong.

A dangerous brush with the brother, the sinister ruler of Nabataean Petra, sends Falco and his girlfriend, Helena, on a hasty camel ride to Syria. They join a traveling theater group, which keeps losing members in nonaccidental drownings. The bad acting and poor audiences are almost as bad as the desert and its scorpions - then, as the killer hovers, Falco tries to write a play.