The Colossus of Rhodes

Very satisfying. It tied up so many loose ends that if I didn't know that there were more books, I'd have thought it was the end of the series. I loved the poem Ithaca, and the way she tied it in.
I really admire the way the stories are exciting, but Laurence has enough respect for both history and her readers to not shy away from either the violence of the culture, or things like phalli, but rather includes and explains them honestly, both in context and in the glossary at the end. I think when kids have read these books (for the adventures) they'll come away with more knowledge than in most books.

Despite the death of the slave trader Venalicius in The Dolphins of Laurentum, children are still disappearing. Flavia and her friends travel to Greece to investigate.

Another exciting instalment, whose serious theme has contemporary resonances as made explicit in the author's afterword.

In 80 A.D., ten-year-old Roman sleuth Flavia and her friends sail from Corinth to Rhodes to try to stop a mysterious man who is kidnapping children and selling them into slavery.