This was a good book and only gets 4 stars because so many other Lindsey Davis books are 5 stars, it suffers by comparison. It covers the first week after Flavia Alba's wedding. Having gotten to like Manlius, it's hard to see him suffering having been hit by lightning in the previous book.
My biggest complaint (which tempts me to remove a star) is the map which too frequently does not line up with the text, and I find that really frustrating! ( )

The Third Nero is the fifth book in the Flavia Albia historical mystery series (call her 'Albia' -- she hates being called 'Flavia'). Albia is the adopted daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, hero of a popular historical mystery series by the same author (which explains all of the references to her parents that you'll find in this book). Falco was a public informer, but now he runs his late father's auction business. Albia is carrying on her adoptive father's old profession. She's also the bride of a magistrate. Too bad Tiberius Manlius Faustus was struck by lightning during their wedding as is recovering.

Because the Emperor Nero is usually thought of as monster in human form these days, it is a bit jarring to have many Roman citizens of Albia's time wishing him back hard enough that two or three men impersonated him in real life. Naturally Emperor Domitian took a dim view of this. Albia is first hired to interview two widows of governors who were suspected of betraying Domitian. She does well enough that the palace bureaucrat who hired her, [Tiberius] Claudius Philippus, (son of Claudius Laeta, a palace freedman who'd worked with Falco in Falco's series), asks her to do something more dangerous. He's sure that a traitor in Rome is behind the Third Nero. That traitor needs to be discovered. That sounds dangerous enough to make for an interesting case.

This entry takes place in September AD 89.

NOTES:

Chapter I: The 'Gazette' column is about the end of book four, The Graveyard of the Hesperides. Here we learn how Falco helped Tiberius.

Chapter II: Albia tells us what her adoptive mother, Helena Justina, taught her to be.

Chapter III:

a. Anacrites' dark end is recounted in book 20 of Falco's series, Nemesis.

b. I think that the family incident involving Domitian that Albia mentions is from the first Falco book, The Silver Pigs.

Chapter V: Helena Justina's favorite younger brother, Camillus Justinus, appears here. He, Falco, and Helena were in Germany in Falco book four, The Iron Hand of Mars.

Chapter VI:

a. Albia stayed at the governor's palace in Londinium in Falco book 14, The Jupiter Myth, the book in which she was introduced.

b. Julius Karus is mentioned. It won't be the last time.

Chapter VIII:

a. Falco hates twee gifts (British for cutesy) by his kids, according to Albia. She also talks about where he gets his clothes.

b. Albia was in Greece in Falco book 17, See Delphi and Die, and in Egypt in Falco book 19, Alexandria.

Chapter XIII: Has a scene with Albia and Tiberius playing at role reversal.

Chapter XIV: Again, see Alexandria for when Helena met Aedemon and Falco acquired Katutis, his Egyptian secretary.

Chapter XV:

a. Falco believed he'd been in the revolving dining room at Nero's Golden House in his book, .

b. Falco's Uncle Fulvius is still a frumintarius (corn factor) in Alexandria. Nice to know he and his partner, Cassius are still alive. Here we learn a little about what else Fulvius does.

Chapter XVII: Albia tells us why she hated the real Nero.

Chapter XVIII:

a. Falco and Uncle had a man in Falco's house for rough interrogation in his book , .

b. Albia advises Philippus to never ask Falco to work for Domitian.

Chapter XXI: Albia and Tiberius have their first quarrel as a married couple.

Chapter XXIII: This chapter has Albia and Philippus dealing with 'Trophimus,' a lowlife who tries to get people to slander Domitian. It's fun.

Chapter XXV: Albia's home office is described.

Chapter XXVI: We get our description of Parthia.

Chapter XXXI:

a. Helena Justina traveled to Palmyra in Falco book 6, Last Act in Palmyra .

b. Sadly for we readers who love cats, Albia is no fan of felines.

c. Albia describes Squilla by quoting her aunt Maia.

Chapter XXXV: Corellius gives Albia and her cousin Marcia information about Squilla's orgin and why her cat is named Vindobona.

Chapter XXXVI: Marius, son of Falco's favorite sister, Maia, by her late first husband, is brought into the case. He appeared in some Falco books as a child. Now he's 25.

Chapter XXXVIII:

a. We learn that Parella the dancing assassin, once asked Falco about Anacrites' disappearance. (Helena and Falco met her in his book 9, A Dying Light in Corduba.

b. Parella tells Albia what her parents would do if she allowed Albia to visit Momus.

Chapter XXXIX: Alas, we only hear about Helena's visit to Albia's home.

Chapter XLI: Albia tells us briefly about Empress Domitia Longina.

Chapter XLV: Falco worked with Rutilius Gallicus in his book ,

Chapter XLVII has a tidbit about what Falco is like when he's having to put on his toga.

Chapter L:

a. Falco's play, 'The Spook Who Spoke' is performed. See the novella, The Spook Who Spoke Again for what Albia's adopted brother, Marcus Didius Alexander Postumus, got up to when his pet, Ferret, went missing.

b. We learn about Marcia's problems with her mother, Marina. ( )

Another enjoyable entry in the Flavia Albia series. I enjoy Flavia's voice - she's reminiscent of Falco, but she has her own dry wit. I did miss seeing more of her family, including her new husband, but I imagine he might feature a bit more actively in the next book. ( )

Domitian was not a popular emperor although revisionist history has that he ruled well. Lacking in any personal charm, I would guess. He saw plots to assassinate him under every toga (and rightly so for the most part) and Davis takes advantage of this and of a historical reality, that there were some 'false Nero' attempts to oust the Flavians with a puppet.
Flavia Alba is very different from her father, for one thing she hasn't (at least so far) gotten herself beaten up as he regularly did but she is a funny and wry and observant as her father. In this one she is asked to help trying to unravel a third false Nero plot, only to uncover . . . you guessed it, much much more. Her new husband, Tiberius the aedile, having been struck by lightning on his wedding day, plays a quiet but not very active role. We meet some Parthians and other new characters are introduced who I expect will be around and about in future volumes. As always it is the setting and small details that make the books irresistible to me. For now I am caught up, but I see there is a new one coming along later this year (2018). Lucy Brown narrated and she is my favourite of the various actors. **** ( )

Flavia Albia is asked to gently ask questions of two ladies whose husbands were executed for treason against the Emperor to see if they knew of their husbands' involvement. Although at first this seems quite straightforward, complications arise and a political prisoner is killed. Is Parthia seeking to destabilise Rome?

I found this the most enjoyable novel in the new series. Satisfyingly complex machinations. ( )