Desperate Undertaking is a historical crime novel by British writer Lindsey Davis, the tenth in her Flavia Albia series.

[2][4] It is divided into parts, of varying lengths, with titles "Laureolus", "Pasiphae", "Oedipus Rex", "Medea", "Selurus the bandit king of Sicily", "Orpheus or possibly Daedalus", "Aeschylus", "Jason" and "The Girl from Londinium".

[5] The cover of the first UK hardback edition shows a damaged bas-relief carving of a seated man contemplating a theatrical mask which he holds in his outstretched hand.

[6] The American cover shows a girl in a white and purple tunic looking towards a Roman theatre while clutching a large dagger.

[3] In a starred review, Publishers Weekly wrote that the novel "reinforces Davis’s place at the top of the Ancient Roman historical subgenre".