Book excerpt: 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.