Customer Reviews

A Body in the Bathhouse

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's been a tough time for Roman informant Falco. First he and his father discover a decomposing body buried under the tiles of his bathhouse. Second, his chief rival begins stalking his sister. Third, Emperor Vespasian wants him to go to Britain to sort out a building project gone bad. Finally, Falco's been asked to find work for his wife's overly energetic but highly impractical brothers. When the chief murder suspects turn up missing, Falco decides to go where the biggest building project is located--Britain--even though he hates that dreary island.

Britain is every bit as dreary as Falco remembers from his days in the military, and it's still a sleepy province far from the civilization of Rome. But Vespasian wants to build a fancy palace for one of the few local kings who supported Rome during a recent rebellion--and he doesn't want to have to pay too much. Falco finds the building crews at war with one another, and nasty hints that the corruption goes even deeper than is usual. Unfortunately, those who benefit from the graft want to keep things just the way they are. It's up to Falco to sort out the problems without creating a diplomatic crisis for his Emperor. Fortunately, Falco's brothers-in-law turn out to be hard-working, if impractical, and his wife, Helena remains a pillar of strength. Which is lucky when the body count really starts to mount.

Author Lindsey Davis delivers an exciting and amusing tale of mystery and history. Falco is a richly detailed character with a lot going on in his life and a lot of constraints that keep him from just throwing out all the scoundrels and starting over. Davis weaves together the multiple mysteries in the novel into a complete whole, gives an intriguing glimpse into what Rome and its provinces might have been like when Rome really did rule the world, and does it with a light tough that keeps the pages turning.

A BODY IN THE BATHHOUSE is a fine and rewarding mystery.

The thing about most detectives is that they're loners. But...sometimes down these mean streets a man must walk...around the corner to his mom's house. And so what? I always wondered what would happen if the great detectives had families; if Philip Marlowe had had an annoying brother in law, or a cousin with gender-identity issues, etc. Most people do have families, and one of the things I like best about Falco is that his involvement with his family, as well as being typically Roman, makes him both more believable and more interesting.
Yes, sometimes the details do get muddled up, and the publishers should [bump] their proofreader on the back of the head, but this book is very well worth reading; the tidal wave of archaeological and historical detail is refreshing, and Davis manages to concoct yet another end-of-the-book welter of chaos and carnage that manages to be different from the previous rucks.
Fun to read, sharp and intelligent...except for Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January books, I haven't enjoyed historical fiction , or believed in its re-created worlds, this much since Mary Renault died.

Falco revisits old haunts here, returning to Britain "five years" after the start of this series. In the interim he's had many far-flung adventures in increasingly domesticated situations.

The setting provides numerous opportunities for Davis to take jabs at her fellow Britons, while developing Falco's sleuthing after misbegotten building contractors-as if the caustic author were revenging herself on a bad personal experience. The first two-thirds of the story is more scornful witticisms than it is mysterious. Oh, right, there are some bodies falling from the scaffolding but what can you expect on an imperial construction site in barbarian Britannia? Falco has it easy for over 200 pages of banter with hardly a hint of suspense among the evident corruption. Davis is true to the modern archaeological finds at Fishbourne in that the construction of the royal palace hardly rises above its foundations. The story is more fun for its incidents and argot than plot and action. Falco's final apprehension of the miscreants makes little sense because it's so accidental. The slow pace of the first two-thirds of the story corroborates my previous suggestion that Davis, and Falco, are best when they stay close to Rome rather than gallivanting about the Empire into some provincial backwater like Palmyra, Corduba, or Britannia. This volume is not one of my favorites in the series.

This book should be read after Ode To A Banker because some issues and nefarious characters there continue here, along with Falco and his now familiar menagerie. Actually, this volume is the middle of a trilogy that concludes in The Jupiter Myth (still in hardback at this writing). The cover art on my pb copy (with the new circular mosaic theme) differs from that shown on Amazon.

"A Body in the Bathhouse" is a mix of the world-weary investigator tinged with the dullness of life in the Britain of 75 A.D. Marcus Didius Falco is an informer for the emperor. He's walks the mean streets of Rome and like most detectives has seen it all, but he soldiers on because he has a wife he loves and children and relatives he tolerates and supports. He also has a ne'er-do-well father whose bathhouse was recently renovated, but the contractors left a smell under the newly laid mosaic floor that leads shortly to the use of pickaxes followed by the inevitable discovery.

Then the story veers northward. From a brief investigation, largely off-stage, Falco suspects two notorious contractors of doing the deed and high-tailing it out of town, to join a massive building project on the coast of Britain. He never explains how he came to this conclusion. It's not only the sole building project in the entire empire, but by a marvelous coincidence, the emperor also wants Falco to go there, to look into a palace being built for the local king that's over budget and behind schedule.

For added story interest, the rest of Falco's family gets dragged along, starting with his wife and their two infants. Since Falco's sister recently dumped the emperor's chief spy, who trashed her house, she comes along as well. Then there are the two cousins, both young and worthless men, who want to learn the informing business.

After a brief, tedious trip through Gaul, they arrive at the building site, Falco meets the king, the architect (arrogant, as always) and the subcontractors, so we get page after page of discussions about sedimented facades, interior flow-throughs, sight-lines, triple-succession promenades, and soon the eyes begin to glaze over when this is followed by a discussion about how building projects were financed and how the bookkeeping was done, and soon you're wishing that you were that body in the bathhouse because then you'll miss all of this.

It takes about 230 pages to set up the dominos which fall in the last third. That's when things start happening, mostly of the running around and beating up or avoiding getting beat up kind, but at least it gets us out of the Roman Empire edition of "Hometime." But there's no real detection going on, and threats foreshadowed through most of the book fizzle out like a damp squibs. Everything turns out all right in the end, of course, and the soap opera situations are mildly diverting, but "Bathhouse" needed a stronger foundation to become a more compelling story.

I really cannot fathom why there are so many negative reactions to Lindsey Davis's latest Falco mystery novel. I read for amusement. And all I demand from a mystery novel (or any other kind of novel for that matter) is that it possess a plot-line that snares my interest (good story line with a few twists and turns, excellent plot development, a few well depicted red herring suspects, and a protagonist that I can take to). Failing that, I'll settle for a novel that entertains and that charms and piques my interest. And as far as I'm concerned, this latest Falco adventure, "A Body in the Bathhouse," does both in spades. Harriet Klausner has already written a rather good plot synopsis, so I'm going to stick to making my case for why I liked this book very much, and why I think it is a good read.

It is true that there is that whole chunk in the middle of the novel that deals with the building project of the Briton High King's palace, but I did not find these bits to be tedious or tiresome at all. After all, Falco had been asked by Vespasian to sniff around and see if the builders were trying to defraud the Empire by padding costs and stealing building material. And I thought that Davis did a rather excellent job of bringing to life the colourful characters involved with this project. So, I saw these bits as a kind of setting of the stage and tone for plot -- for giving the book a kind of 'feel' and atmosphere so to speak. As such, I didn't see these chapters as a distracting and tiresome, but necessary to the development of certain plot themes. Another example of what some may consider as trivial distractions, but which I rather enjoy, is the personal stories of certain series regulars that Davis has been developing over the past few books. Characters such as Falco's sister, the fetching widow Maia, and her relationship with Petro, Falco's best friend. What will happen there? Will their relationship move forward or will it deteriorate because of the part Petro paid in getting her out of Rome and out of Anacrites (her vindictive stalker)'s way? I also wanted to know how things would pan out between Aelianus and Justinus. (By the way, a previous reviewer got it wrong. Aelianus and Justinus are Helena's, Falco's wife, younger brothers, and not his cousins). Both young men have tagged along to Britain in order to 'help' Falco with his twin tasks of investigating the case of possible graft, and of locating Glaucuc and Cotta. The relationship between the two brothers however is practically nonexistent, esp since Justinus had eloped earliar with Aelianus's fiance (chronicled in two previous Falco adventures, "Three Hands in a Fountain" & "Two for the Lions.") Currently however Justinus, his wife and Aelianus, are all living with Helena's parents, and both young men are working for Falco as his assistants -- a very volatile situation indeed. Will the brothers cry pax and become friends again? What impact would Justinus's spell away from his new wife have on his marriage? And will Aelianus ever find his niche in the scheme of things? (I'll admit to having developed a sneaking affection for Helena's least liked brother). So that while the mystery at hand may not have been one of Davis's more stellar efforts, the need to know how things would pan out for all these characters had me fairly devouring the book in one go.

As I've already stated, I read for entertainment. And "A Body in the Bathhouse" definitely entertained. The author maintained her sharp, witty and droll prose style from beginning to end, expertly and with ease. I wish I could write so well. Truthfully speaking, I may not be the best person to give an unbiased review of Lindsey Davis's work since I firmly believe her to be a rather phenomenal writer. But, I really did enjoy this mystery novel very much. It may not be a very complex and clever murder mystery, and it may not have kept me guessing about the outcome of things to the very end, but it definitely engaged my interest. I also didn't find Davis's style to have become studied, trite or tiresome. And she certainly doesn't need lessons from anyone on how to write a good story. My final opinion: the book is a good read; and if you're leery about spending so much on a book that may or may not live up to your expectations, well, there is always the library. Because, truth to tell, I really do think that this is a book that no one should miss.

Builder bumping off means off to Britain.


Falco has an unpleasant discovery in a new structural addition, and the disappearance of those involved leads him to yet another trip to Britain, not his favorite place by any stretch. It is a whole family affair, with kids, and even some in-laws.

Falco sticks his Informer nose in to see if he can solve what is going on with corruption in the building industry and a large Roman project.


3.5 out of 5

I thought "Silver Pigs" was wonderful. By this one, Falco is tiresome, trite and boring. The humourous cynicism present in the earlier novels seems to be both studied and begrudging in the later ones. And the family is NOT that cute. Still, there are a few flashes of humour. If Falco would ditch the extended family, Davis would tighten up the writing and not be quite so coy, this series could be salvaged. Davis should take a few lessons from John Maddox Roberts and Decius.

This latest offering from Lindsey Davis only confirms, I think, that, unlike JMR's Decius Caecilius Metellus, Marcus Didius Falco doesn't travel very well.
A return to Britain after the opening Silver Pigs novel was always going to be interesting but this one ends up firmly mired in the mud of the villa that is being built. You get the impression that there was so much potential, as Marcus and Helena followed their suspect builders, Glaucus and Cotta - from their appearance in 'One Virgin Too Many' - across Gaul to southern Britain, that Davis ended up with too many threads to this novel to neatly conclude. What should, perhaps, have been a larger novel suddenly got crammed. The other disappointment is that the murder mystery technique is weak so it is obvious pretty quickly who the murderer is before we end up on a race across the roof tiles.
Davis continues the character development as Maia is in tow, fleeing from an imaginary spy - though it is implied to be Anacrites - with Petronius Longus looking after the children (the funniest bit comes right at the end from Marcus' nephew as Marcus finally tracks down the hapless Glaucus and Cotta).
After a murder of the site manager, Falco works his way through the artisans and workers on the site, deals with some intricate local politics and eventually get his culprit.
Unfortunately, a ranking of Falco novels would place this somewhere near the bottom as the whole effort is rather muddied and obvious. I look forward to Falco returning to Rome where he is in his element.

Well, for myself as a reader, anyway. Falco has bad luck in spades. My eyes didn't glaze over once while I was reading. (Okay, I did fall asleep after chapter 19, but it *was* 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. When I woke up, I grabbed for the book before I grabbed for my glasses and my cat was miffed by how long it took me to fetch her morning ration of canned catfood.)

I love mysteries where our hero/heroine has loads of odd relatives. It's rather nice that with this couple the problem kin are from both sides. After all the trouble Helena's brothers were, it was good to see them put through their paces later on.

The historical details were a plus. I enjoyed having them sandwiched in with dealing with the various workmen.

The last few chapters might as well have been lumped under the title, "The Perils of Public Informer Falco & Family". They go from one very dangerous situation to another to another.

In short, I had a lot of fun with this entry.

As a Ivy League trained classicist and fan of Lindsey Davis from the time of her very first Falco novel, "Silver Pigs," it's hard for me to say this: frankly and colloquially put, "A Body in the Bathhouse" really stinks. I had begun to sense a growing problem in her last few books- the plots had become thinner, the dialogue more contrived, even the characters seemed to be growing tired of themselves. I had hoped in this book the process would have been reversed, but "A Body in the Bathhouse" only completes the cycle of decline. You get the sense reading her pages that Ms. Davis merely threw together a number of unrelated, superficial characters and plots simply to meet a publisher's deadline. And speaking of the publisher: is anyone editing her series these days? According to the cover, Ms. Davis is an author of "internationally bestselling novels." So why does her editor allow all these supposedly Roman characters to speak in a low-end Birmingham argot that is almost unintelligible to the average American reader? (And I would guess, to quite a few Brits as well, not to mention the Aussies and all other English speakers around the globe.) Enough already! A bit of the King's English, please! And finally, while Ms. Davis' anti-gay bias has been hinted at almost from the beginning of this series, her increasing use of gay stereotypes to portray effeminate and evil men simply smacks of uniformed heterosexual bias. All in all, my recommendation is to wait for this one to come out in paperback, expect little when (and if) you read it, and simply hope for a sea change in future volumes.