Author: Lawrence, Caroline
Interest age: from c 7 years 
Published 01/04/2002 by Hachette Children's Group (Orion Children's Books) in the United Kingdom as part of The Roman Mysteries series 
Paperback | 208 pages, 2 Maps
The first in Caroline Lawrence's internationally bestselling Roman Mysteries series, re-issued with a fantastic new cover look. Flavia Gemina is a natural at solving mysteries.  The daughter of a ship's captain living in Ostia, the port of Rome, in AD79, she and her three friends, Jonathan, a Jewish boy (and secretly a Christian); Nubia, an African slave girl; and Lupus, a mute beggar boy, must work together to discover who is beheading the watchdogs that guard people's homes, and why.
A talented storyteller, Caroline Lawrence has created a delightfully readable and accessible series that children will want to read time and time again.