A Comedy of Terrors by Lindsey Davis: A review

 

Lines from a Bob Dylan song kept running through my mind as I was reading this. Remember "When I Paint My Masterpiece"? It's the one that starts "Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble..." and it goes on to mention several famous sites in Rome. The streets of 89 C.E. Rome may not have been filled with rubble exactly, but they often seem to have been strewn with quite a lot of the less salubrious effluvium of city life. In other words, you had to watch your step. With these kinds of meticulous details, Lindsey Davis paints vivid pictures of ancient Rome in her historic mysteries. The reader can easily imagine herself on those streets.

Several years ago, Davis had a series featuring private detective, or "informer" as she styles the profession, Marcus Didius Falco. The first in the series came out in 1989 and the twentieth and last book was published in 2009. I read and loved them all. Falco was and is a great character, tough and full of sardonic humor but with a heart of gold for the underprivileged. But then his father died and left him the family auction business and Falco hung up his gumshoes, so to speak, and became a businessman. But he and his wife Helena had an adopted Briton daughter called Flavia Albia who had learned well at her father's knee. Independent-minded and seeking to be self-sufficient and with her parents' blessing, she set herself up as a private informer. Thus began a new series that has now grown to nine books. I read the first one when it came out in 2013, then I moved on to other things and I never got around to the later books. But when I saw that the latest one had been published, I decided it was time to visit ancient Rome once again. It's nice to learn that Lindsey Davis hasn't lost her touch.

Flavia Albia is now pushing thirty and is recently remarried (after widowhood) to one of Rome's aediles (magistrates) and they are foster parents to the aedile's two young nephews whose mother has died and whose father is irresponsible. Albia and husband Tiberius preside over a chaotic but benevolent household of various family members, servants, and hangers-on. We meet them all during December Saturnalia celebrations when things are possibly even more chaotic than usual. 

Albia's work is in a slow period but she is determined to continue with it despite her new responsibilities as a parent. When she is approached by a woman who claims to want to leave her abusive husband and disappear into a new life, she takes the case and agrees to help her. It is only later that she learns that the situation may not have been quite what the woman had described.

Meantime, Tiberius is conducting his own investigation with the help of the vigiles (police/firemen in ancient Rome). It is an investigation of fraud in the nut-selling business, an important enterprise, especially during Saturnalia. One nut leads to another and soon the investigation reveals even more rampant fraud, bribery, intimidation, and murder. Moreover, the investigation overlaps with Albia's case, and the two join forces to combat evil and a threat to their family. They are on a tight schedule because Tiberius' term in office and his authority end with the new year so they need to wrap it all up swiftly.

This story includes some fairly disgusting and grisly goings-on at times as one might expect in ancient Rome but Davis tells it all with a light touch. Albia has evidently learned her humor from her father so she has a way of delivering the narrative (and we see everything through her eyes) with frequent sardonic bon mots that can't fail to bring a smile. Davis even brings on Falco and Helena in guest appearances for nostalgia's sake. Best of all perhaps, Lindsey Davis continues to excel at her descriptions of life in that ancient city. Walk through those streets and watch out for the rubble and that less salubrious effluvium and you'll find that the city teems with all the delight and delirium of life lived large. I'm glad I decided to check in on this series again.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Ides of April by Lindsey Davis: A review

I am a big fan of Lindsey Davis' Marcus Didius Falco series. I've read all twenty books in that series and was waiting for the next entry, but, as it happens, Marcus has retired from the investigations game since the death of his father. As chief heir to the family fortune, he's taken over the family auction business and is prospering in that role.

But the miscreants of Rome should not rest easy. The Didius Falcos' adopted daughter, Flavia Albia, is now on the case, having been trained by the master himself.

Those readers who have followed the series will remember Flavia Albia as the British-born orphan waif rescued from a life on the streets by Marcus and Helena. She was adopted and raised as their daughter. Now she is all grown up at 28 and is herself a widow, her much-loved young husband, Lentullus, having died a few years before. She is determined to make her own way in the world and to maintain her independence. Following in her adoptive father's footsteps is her way of achieving that goal.

This novel, first in a new series for Davis, is actually based on real historical events. A series of mysterious deaths of people thought to be perfectly healthy is revealed to be the result of an unknown poison. The poison is delivered by a needle that has been loaded with the deadly substance. It is delivered in public places, on the streets of Rome, and usually the victims do not even realize they have been attacked until it is too late and they are breathing their last.

The scene of the action is the Aventine Hill, which is Flavia's haunt. She knows its monumental temples, grubby snack bars, and muddy back lanes like the back of her hand. Moreover, she has taken over her father's ratty old office there as her own headquarters.

She becomes involved in the case when a nephew is suspicious about the death of his perfectly healthy elderly aunt. Flavia agrees to investigate and soon learns of other unexpected deaths in the same area. She enlists the aid of friends in the vigiles, the local fire brigade/police, in her investigation and finds that she has come to the attention of the plebeian aedile, Manlius Faustus. His "runner," Tiberius, is often on the streets looking for perpetrators of crime and he offers advice and support to Flavia, although at first she is very hostile to him and unwilling to take it.

She is much more taken by another member of Faustus' household, a charming freedman named Andronicus, and feels herself becoming romantically involved with him. But will she allow her head to be turned to the extent that she loses sight of her investigation into the murders?

Flavia Albia is a tough and witty investigator/narrator in the tradition of Marcus Didius Falco. She gives us a new slant on life in ancient Rome, as we see the city and its people and political systems from the viewpoint of a woman. 

She is living and working in the time of the emperor Domitian, a much less benevolent ruler than the Vespasian and Titus that Marcus Didius Falco had to deal with and occasionally worked for. It is a time of paranoia in Rome, when people do well to keep their heads down for fear they might be chopped off. 

Flavia Albia has a soft spot for animals and the appalling cruelty to foxes of the cult of Ceres is one of the features of this story - a feature which I, frankly, found very hard to read, having myself a soft spot for animals. But it is a part of the inhumanity to both animals and humans that was endemic to the era, and Lindsey Davis, as usual, has done her research well. She brings the streets of ancient Rome to life in an unflinching way. 

It will be interesting to see where she goes with this new female detective of hers. I'll be waiting for the next installment.

Nemesis: A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery by Lindsey Davis - Review

I love fiction set in ancient Rome and when it is a mystery, my favorite genre, so much the better. The Marcus Didius Falco series by Lindsey Davis is one of my favorites of the type. I've read them all and now I've read this latest one.

I have to say it was not my favorite of the lot, but it was very good, very entertaining and kept me guessing, although I did have a glimmer of the solution about two-thirds of the way through.

The book starts with a double tragedy. Falco loses two family members in one day and the losses change his life forever. While he is working through his bereavement, he is presented with the mystery of the disappearance of a couple who had been supplying his antique dealer/auctioneer father with statuary. A shipment was delivered but when payment was attempted the suppliers could not be found. Soon Falco is on the trail of the disappeared pair and that leads him into confrontation with a notorious and violent family. A family which may very well be involved in mass murder.

Falco's vigiles friend, Petronius, becomes involved when a murdered and desecrated body is found. The body turns out to be the man who was the statuary supplier, but as Petronius and Falco investigate this turn of events, the case is abruptly stolen from their juridiction by their old nemesis, the imperial spy Anacrites. Of course, when did that ever stop this doughty and stubborn pair?

The case gets curiouser and curiouser and Falco's extended family becomes involved in its pursuit. But the faithful Lindsey Davis reader can be assured that all will come right for our heroes in the end.

Davis really has the knack of putting her readers right in the middle of ancient Rome. One can almost smell the streets as one strolls through one of her stories. I like the historical detail and the way that she has of showing that the ancient Romans were really no different from us. Some have complained that she sometimes puts modern terms in the mouths of her characters (e.g., "Have they lawyered up?") but that doesn't bother me. I just assume that this is a modern translation of Falco's memoirs.