The tale is set in November AD 89 on the Capitoline Hill, and includes a death by falling from the Tarpeian Rock, a stinking family of shell-fish boilers who produce the imperial purple dye, the preparations for Domitian's double triumph, family relationships, and augury, while Flavia and her husband are setting up their new household.[5]
The cover of the UK hardback 1st edition shows a sea shell, likely to be the dye-producing bolinus brandaris, on a purple, perhaps bloodstained, background.
In an interview with her editor Oliver Johnson, Davis discussed her successful plan to base a series of books on the seven hills of Rome, starting with the Aventine Hill and reaching the Capitoline Hill with this latest book.[6]
