Customer Reviews

Alexandria

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is number nineteen in a series of excellent detective stories set in Vespasian's Roman Empire and featuring the informer Marcus Didius Falco. It has perhaps the best opening in the series so far:

"They say you can see the Lighthouse from thirty miles away. Not in the day, you can't."

Informers in ancient Rome were something between a private detective and a government spy: in the cast list at the start of the book Falco now describes himself as "fixer, traveller and playwright."

It is spring AD77. Falco's wife Helena Justina has always wanted to see all of the "Seven Wonders of the World". In a previous book, "See Delphi and Die" Falco and Helena visited the Temple of Zeus at Olympus and they also visited Athens.

(Pedant alert: there was more than one ancient list of the seven wonders of the world, but neither the traditional list of seven wonders compiled by Philo of Byzantium in 225 BC, nor any of the other contemporary versions I can find, include a wonder at Athens. Perhaps Lindsey Davis was thinking of the Parthenon, which is certainly one of the more iconic of the great ancient buildings, but people of that time did not consider it as one of the world's seven greatest wonders. Never mind.)

When Helena gets an invitation to pay a family visit to Falco's uncle in Alexandria, she realises that accepting the invitation would give her the opportunity to see three more wonders. These are the Colossus of Rhodes (which they have already seen on the way to Alexandria before the start of the book), the Pharos or Great Lighthouse at Alexandria, and the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza.

Such a trip would also expedite a visit to the Great Library at Alexandria, and it turns out that Emperor Vespasian has a little job he wants done which requires a trip to the Great Library. So, despite the fact that Helena is several months pregnant with her third child, Falco accepts that mission and they set of for Alexandria with the family.

But the morning after they arrive in Alexandria, a centurion interrupts their breakfast with news, to paraphrase an Agatha Christie title, of a body in the Great Library. The librarian himself has been found in his office, apparently murdered. As Falco is known to be the Emperor's fixer, he is asked to investigate ...

To judge by other reviews on the Amazon UK site, some readers are finding that this series is losing a bit of its edge, but personally I am not one of them. I found the humour delightful, particularly the banter between Falco and Helena, and apart from the slight clanger about the list of wonders I enjoyed reading the interesting historical details about the first century Roman empire which the author included.

I originally tried this series because I had enjoyed the "Brother Cadfael" detective stories by Ellis Peters, or to use her real name, Edith Pargeter. Edith herself said of the early books of this series, 'Lindsey Davis continues her exploration of Vespasian's Rome and Marcus Didius Falco's Italy with the same wit and gusto that made "The Silver Pigs" such a dazzling debut and her rueful, self-deprecating hero so irresistibly likeable.'

Funny, exciting, and based on a painstaking effort to re-create the world of the early Roman empire between 70 and 77 AD. If you have met and enjoyed the Cadfael series, this is even better.

It isn't absolutely essential to read these stories in sequence, as the mysteries Falco is trying to solve are all self-contained stories and each can stand on its own. Having said that, there is some ongoing development of characters and relationships and I think reading them in the right order does improve the experience.

The full Falco series, in chronological order, consists at the moment of:

The Silver Pigs
Shadows in Bronze
Venus in Copper
The Iron Hand of Mars
Poseidon's Gold
Last Act in Palmyra
Time to Depart
A Dying Light in Corduba
Three Hands in the Fountain
Two for the Lions
One Virgin Too Many
Ode to a Banker
A Body in the Bath house
The Jupiter Myth
The Accusers
Scandal taks a Holiday
See Delphi and Die
Saturnalia
Alexandria
Nemesis

I have read and can warmly recommend all of these.

I don't read too many historical mysteries, but I do admit to snatching up each Marcus Didius Falco adventure as it comes out. I like Marcus Didius Falco very much. A cynical, lowborn, wisecracking private eye (or "informer") holding it down in 1st Century Rome, the guy would absolutely feel at home in, say, the mean streets of Los Angeles. I have been onboard with Lindsey Davis's fantastic long-running series ever since The Silver Pigs: A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery (Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries), the one which introduced Falco and his great love, the incomparable Senator's daughter Helena Justina.

Time's snuck up, brother, twenty years have passed since SILVER PIGS first graced the bookstore shelves. ALEXANDRIA is already the 19th entry, and, as chronicled in his past adventures, life-changing things have befallen Falco. That's one of the many things that I like about the series, that Lindsey Davis allows development and growth in her characters. In interior chronology, seven years have elapsed from the events in SILVER PIGS to this latest, ALEXANDRIA. Falco has certainly flourished, having gone from being merely a seedy informer from the Aventine ghettos - "informing" being generally regarded as a pretty contemptible vocation - to now flaunting a sort of middle-class respectability (although he's still very much an informer, and still despised in certain quarters). Falco is now a family man, having married the brilliant Helena Justina some time ago and now father to two young girls, an adopted teenaged girl, and one mangy dog. His social status has been elevated not only by his marriage to a Senator's daughter and his purchase of his new social ranking, but also by his taking on occasional troubleshooting missions for the Emperor. Falco is older, wiser, and perhaps more tactful. But he's still got that quick wit and that sarcasm down. As ever, Helena Justina is his match, banter for banter and clue for clue.

It's Spring in the year 77 A.D. and Falco, Helena Justina (who is four or five months pregnant) and their immediate family are off on a holiday jaunt to the legendary city of Alexandria, Egypt - Egypt then being a province of the vast Roman Empire. Throughout the novel Falco hints that there may possibly be a smidgen of government work involved, although when he does 'fess up, this so-called assignment turns out to be fairly anticlimactic. But it's this cloak of Imperial authority which lands Falco in yet another murder mystery, and this one of the locked room persuasion. When the Librarian of the Great Library of Alexandria passes away behind closed doors, and the investigating centurion finds himself baffled, the Pass the Buck routine is on as Falco gets tapped to take over the investigation, thanks to his being regarded as an imperial specialist.

The bulk of the book has Falco tiredly navigating his way thru a maze of dirty politics, scholarly backstabbings, and sinister rivalries (apparently, the position of the Librarian is very prestigious and much coveted). But Falco's enquiries lead him to a disturbing discovery, that this perplexing murder (suicide?) may involve certain of his family members. It's par for the course that more corpses surface, and that Falco's life becomes endangered several times and that Helena Justina again proves herself invaluable. There is smuggling, and even a sultry widow who very quickly femme fatales her way onto the scene. There's even a mad inventor near the end. And, oh, also, Falco wrestles with a big honking crocodile.

In all these books featuring Marcus Didius Falco, the main draw has always been his interactions with Helena Justina; I've been invested in their relationship from the get-go, from when their romance was this compelling star-crossed thing to nowadays, when they've comfortably settled in. It's a bit weird, but I more or less regard this couple as the Nick and Nora Charles of the toga set (and there's even a dog, just not in this book). I like that they're equal partners, with Helena Justina just as witty and clever and fun and as fully capable of solving a case as her hubby. Falco, meanwhile, is my all-time favorite shamus in rumpled tunic and sandals. Falco and Helena Justina feel like contemporary characters, with Falco's strong voice providing the first-person narrative and serving as tour guide to an ancient Rome that is so richly detailed that it feels quite convincing and real. For me, the murder case itself has always been of secondary importance, although, certainly, it's fun to see Falco work his way thru his list of suspects while dishing out his patented volley of wisecracks.

I really liked ALEXANDRIA, but then again I like all of the Falco novels. As ever Lindsey Davis blends contemporary diction with 1st Century vernacular, this serving to make the readers feel at ease instead of possibly having said readers suspect that a deadly dull ancient history class has been snuck on them. ALEXANDRIA catches us up with Falco's boisterous circle of family and friends and, while the mystery itself tends to drag at times, Davis does throw in several neat and interesting moments. There are, of course, those moments of Falco and Helena Justina just working their magic together or Falco acting the proud exhausted papa. But one fascinating sequence which really sticks to the mind and gives a sliver of insight into the early Egyptian mindset is that of the Zoo Keeper conducting an autopsy (or "necropsy"), a course of action universally deemed to be grossly, morally offensive. Even an ex-soldier like Falco, on viewing the dissection, has to regain his composure. And, for the reluctant tourists out there, while Helena Justina is the eternally studious scholar and endlessly eager to view famous landmarks, I'm more in line with Falco's "Okay, we've seen it; can we go home now?" attitude, their respective behavior demonstrated near the end as they visit the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. And, again, there's Falco and that croc.

I'm not much of a history buff, so I can't say word one concerning the accuracy or inaccuracy of ancient Roman/Egyptian history as submitted by the author. But I will say that Lindsey Davis is hell on wheels with telling a story, is a marvel with character development and with keeping the central characters' romance alive and fresh, and that the fabled city of Alexandria, under her pen, is rendered vivid and well-realized. And as for the characters themselves, well, Falco, Helena Justina and their fractious lot have been living, breathing folks to me for the past twenty years. With ALEXANDRIA, Lindsey Davis again doesn't let us down. What a fine writer she is.

Marcus Didius Falco's eighteen previous escapades took him, when he wasn't at home in Rome, to Naples, Capua, and outward to Greece, Spain, Germany, and Britain. This time, in the Spring of A.D. 77, he and his family arrive in Egypt to see the Pyramids at Giza. But first they sail from Rhodes to the city Alexander the Great built, where they'll stay a while with Falco's Uncle Fulvius. Alexandria beckons them with the huge landmark, the famed Lighthouse. To welcome their guests, Fulvius and his partner throw a dinner party, and among the invited is the Librarian of the Great Library of the Alexandria Museion, a man who seems burdened. Not long afterward, Falco is summoned to a mysterious locked-door death at the library, and soon he is appointed by the Prefect to investigate. In the course of 338 pages, he and his lovely wife, Helena Justina, meet the anticipated parade of possible suspects and uncover various shenanigans that might be motives for murder. As Falco tries to unravel the political jockeying and the shady dealings at the Museion and in Alexandria at large, he becomes acquainted with Philadelphion, the Zoo Keeper; Nicanor, a lawyer; Zenon, Chief Astronomer; Diogenes, an enterprising businessman; Katutis, a street watcher; and Roxana, a women desired by many. The good private "informer" must, once again conduct interviews, gather evidence, and try to sort through who did what to whom. Meanwhile Falco's Pa surprises them, library scrolls disappear, and the body count rises.

As always, author Lindsey Davis creates the Vespasian Roman Empire which Falco serves using faithful and vividly described historical research. Then she overlays that with a decidedly modern twist on character behavior and psychology. Hers are people with 21st century speech and outlooks. They, in turn, are packaged in a conventional mystery structure to which we are accustomed. Then everything is bonded with doses of satire, irony, and archness. Falco's observations about his Empire might as easily be ones we could make about our society, our institutions, our mores. He straddles the time continuum, in a sense, and he does it with endearing aplomb.

I'm already looking forward to the next in the Falco series which reportedly will be entitled Nemesis. In the meantime, homage to Alexandria: A Marcus Didius Falco Novel (Marcus Didius Falco Mysteries). Enjoy. 4.5 stars.

I am a big fan of Lindsey Davis, have all the books in the Didius Falco series, and enjoy rereading them. The strong points of her novels are in the characters (how can you not "know" them?) as well as the descriptions of the settings. However, I think that over the years Davis has had increasingly more problems with the plotlines. As it is, Alexandria is another interesting travel log for Falco and Helena and their family, but the story line and the new characters are not very exciting. At one point, I even found myself dozing off. I recently reread Silver Pigs and Three Hands in the Fountain, both fascinating and entertaining, even after all these years. Alexandra is a great read but it's not at the same level as most of the previous works.

Until recently I would never have thought that I would be giving such a low rating to a book in one of my favorite series. The earlier books(as another reviewer said,"the ones with metal in the title"),and the next few,were brilliant, but more recent books have been much weaker. I still buy every Falco mystery as soon as it comes out, and will probably continue to do so,but I'm becoming increasingly frustrated by the direction in which the series is going. I usually enjoy series in which the characters develop and their lives change, but not this time. Put simply, as Falco's social status and finances have improved, and his family has grown, the books have become more formulaic, and Falco himself less interesting. The wit that was funny when it showed the resilience of an intelligent man living in danger and near-poverty, now sounds shallow. Falco may still sometimes face danger, though less often, but never any prolonged hardship or mental or physical suffering. He used to be sent on important and risky missions for the Emperor, now he goes on what are essentially family vacations to exotic, alien places, with a little imperial fact-finding thrown in. Even Helena Justina has lost something. Falco continually tells us how special she is, but we don't see this as we did in earlier books. Their relationship has become a bit smug. And I am getting SO tired of the children.
I wish Lindsey Davis would cut down heavily on the domesticity that so many reviewers seem to love. Falco should go back to undertaking more serious missions for the Emperor, involving major affairs of state(and when did we last meet Vespasian,Titus,and Domitian?) Vespasian is due to die soon. Falco,and Helena too,have a more ambiguous relationship with Titus, which could seriously affect their fortunes. I hope we have a book with this as the main theme, but I've a bad feeling that it will more likely be about Aulus and Albia's romance and Sosia Favonia's first serious illness, with a murder or two in the background. In fact, why not have a book or two almost entirely Falco, with Helena in the first chapter before he sets off for Noricum, and the last, when he comes in with "Hi,honey. I'm home." like an old TV comedy. This would be a big improvement on recent books, though I don't really want to give all the five-star reviewers apoplexy.

When I started the Falco series, I couldn't get enough. I read book after book. In my imagination, I traveled from the wilds of the German forests to the bogs and mists of Britain. I walked the streets of ancient Rome and I had a thoroughly good time. Somewhere around "A Dying Light in Corduba" the stories stumbled. Sadly, Marcus is just too domesticated. Back in the day, he was the "Jim Rockford" (think James Garner) of the city. An "informer" of low repute and constantly dodging the bill collectors. Getting beaten up by gladiators was not uncommon. By the time of "Alexandria", we have Didius with family in tow, touring a legendary city...and that's about that. I put the book away after 133 pages. A 300+ page turner does not wait for over a third of the book, for the plot to get moving. At this point we haven't even met all the suspects! I also fell asleep trying to read this latest offering. The first six books are a delight. Forget about the rest.

I've given this three stars because I enjoyed this latest entry into the Falco series but agree with some of the other reviewers that Falco's life is getting a bit too easy and he needs a major shakeup. I suspect that's going to happen in the next book (Nemesis) given Lindsey Davis's plot hints on her Web site. It could be that Davis has been luring Falco and her readers into complacency and is going to give him a huge personal catastrophe in the next book, which is fine by me. He and Helena are becoming too pleased with themselves and they're losing their edge, especially Falco.

Having said that, I liked this one, even more so on the second reading. Davis is excellent at dropping little hints almost as an afterthought that will payoff later in the book, and her characterizations are always great. There's snappy dialog, as there always is, and Davis's descriptions of places puts me there - I felt like I was seeing Alexandria myself. She's also managed to not keep the main characters static over 19 books - it would be pretty bad if they never changed. I also really liked Aulus as Falco's assistant as he doesn't treat Falco with much reverence and is, in fact, fairly snarky toward him, something that Falco needs. I'd like to see the two of them together on a case where they get into some real trouble, a life-or-death situation. What didn't I like? While I didn't mind Albia going along on the trip, because, like Aulus, she's a sarcastic girl, which is good, I wish the little girls (Julia and Sosia) had stayed home. Having them along didn't do anything for the story. So, while it was worth the money and my time reading it, I'm anticipating that the next one has a bit more danger to it. I'm encouraged by the fact that Petro apparently figures heavily into it, which is good because he's one of my favorite characters.

I am a huge fan of this immensely clever and diverting mystery series. Ms. Davis is a tremendously skilled writer, earning the vast legions of Falco followers with superb character development, pithy dialogue and nifty plots.

That said, I felt "Alexandria" was not her best work with the ingratiating Roman informer Falco and his entourage. The plot was a bit of a muddle and rather slow with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink climax that seemed tired as if Ms. Davis herself had gotten bored with it as well.

And THAT said, I will be first in line to buy the next Falco novel when it comes out! When Ms. Davis is on her game, there isn't a better detective writer writing today.

As always, an adventure with Marcus Didius Falco is a delight. Lindsey's characterizations and descriptions continue to be full without being pedantic. Having actually been to Alexandria, I got a special kick out of this one. Just sorry I'll have to wait a year for the next in the series.

The ancient city of Alexandria was known for two main things: the Lighthouse at Rhodes, and the vast Library (largest one of its kind in the ancient world).

So it's a pretty good bet that when Marcus Didius Falco takes a family vacation in Alexandria, dead bodies will crop up at one (or more!) famous locations. Lindsay Davis' ancient-Roman mystery series is still pretty fresh and enjoyable in the nineteenth volume, "Alexandria," especially with all the malevolence and skeletons in the world of ancient academe... although the literally red-hot climax ends up falling a bit flat.

Falco, a pregnant Helena Justina and their assorted kids arrive to stay with shady Uncle Fulvius and his life partner Cassius, who introduce them to the director of the Library, Theon.

Unfortunately, Theon is found dead in a locked room the day after Fulvius' dinner party -- and a necropsy (an autopsy with a cooler name) reveals that he had eaten oleander. Was it suicide, or murder? Falco begins investigating with the help of Helena and her brother Aulus, and discovers that for all its lofty goals and ideals, the Library's faculty is actually a hotbed of grudges, sexual competition, infighting and ambition. You know, normal.

As a shortlist of new candidates is produced, Falco tries to figure out who might have been desperate enough to kill Theon, and whether the proposed discarding of old manuscripts from the Library might be connected to it. Unfortunately, his investigations lead him to a showdown with a giant crocodile, a second murder and a deadly undercover mission at the Pharos Lighthouse. And the conspiracy at the Library may reach

Lindsay Davis has a rare writing knack -- she can write historical mysteries without spending the whole book constantly going, "Look at all my cool research! Check out all the uninteresting details I dug up to give the book an authentic feel!" as many such writers do. It's full of the flavour of ancient Rome transplanted to dusty, decorative Alexandria and its waning glory, and some barbed mockery of the Romans' attitudes toward the Egyptians and the city of Alexandria.

Along the way, there's plenty of tangled personal grudges and thwarted ambition among the various people working at the library, and a murky little conspiracy involving vanishing scrolls. Davis spices this up with some heart-pounding suspense (a massive wrestling match with Sobek) and some wicked humour (the snake that likes to stare up people's tunics). And she has a clever way of giving the characters perspectives that ancient people might have had -- such as "the Odyssey" being referred to as a bawdy adventure tale.

The biggest problem: it feels like Davis overreached herself slightly with all the suspects, with the result that Falco's dramatic unmasking of the bad guy is rather awkward (I half expected him to yell "IT WAS YOUUUUU!") and anticlimactic.

Despite that, Falco himself has aged remarkably well for a character in his nineteenth mystery -- mellow and loving to his family, prickly around his annoying relatives, hard-edged and keen-eyed when working as an informer. Helena Justina uses a solid mix of brains, charm and insight to get information Falco needs. There's also a colourful supporting cast -- oily little officials, womanizing zookeepers, surly astronomers, a snakey lawyer and a sexy mistress who's playing a dangerous game. Not to mention a new character who might come in handy in the next book.

"Alexandria" has a slightly flat grand finale, but the mystery itself is a winding, frequently deadly trip through an exotic ancient city. Definitely a good little read, especially for such a long-running series.