Customer Reviews

The Iron Hand of Mars: A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Top hole! I've read all of Lindsey Davis' Falco series and although I enjoyed them all, this is the only one on a par with the marvelous series opener SILVER PIGS. In fact, I'd give this a 10--I just loved it--but I have to reserve that for SILVER PIGS itself which is incomparable. For fans of the series, this is another of the books where Falco goes on the road and enables Davis to cast a cocked eye on the various nationalities of Europe under the pretext of junketing the ancient world. Somehow the plots where Falco travels through the wilder bits of the Roman Empire bring out the best in him and are the most entertaining. Maybe it's just that Davis loves to tell a good adventure story--or maybe it's just that Falco is basically most convincing as a soldier. You'll finish it and turn to the beginning to read it again. Nadine Harris

I read this book in less than one week. Normally I spend and average time of a month in finishing a book, but this was one of the "rare" cases that the reading last until 2 am. Marcus travels to a wild land, Germania Libera in order to send a gift of the emperor and ends with his life in hands of a German sorceress. The full novel is filled with action and historical references, it's worth the money!.

Falco hits the road again in this fourth novel, this time for Germania. Unlike the first two novels, where the action split between Rome and rural locales, almost all of "The Iron Hand of Mars" is set in Gaul and Germany. The grit of the frontier backdrops matches Falco's sour attitude toward the journey and his Imperial mission. His girlfriend Helena Justina fortunately joins the more urban portions of the trip, as their character interactions in Davis's subtle prose are the highlight of these novels.

The plot consists of a long list of Imperial requests relating to recent and past Roman military troubles on the frontier. Davis skillfully explains the history of first century Roman clashes with the Germanic tribes and relates it to the plot without bogging down in dry exposition. Falco's interaction with various members of the frontier legions shows Davis's thorough command of Roman military details. Falco's trek through feral Germania has the same wild adventure tainted with ghosts of legionary history feel as the journey beyond Hadrian's Wall in Sutcliffe's "Eagle of the Ninth." However, random encounters with several of the final people on Falco's task list leave the ending feeling coincidental. Regardless, Davis skillfully develops several new characters, including a gruff centurion and Helena's tribune brother, and continues to build the relationship between Falco and Helena.

This is the best of the Didius Falco series (I've read them all). I absolutely loved it. It's full of history, intrigue, humor, and romance. I recommend this series to all my friends.

As a native of Germany and Mainz (Mogontiacum) where parts of this book take place I have to say: Great work, Mrs Davis! This book is, like all the Falco books, highly readable and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in daily life in Roman times as well as those who love a good story. It's more fun than a history book and you still learn a few things. If you like Mogontiacum (which Falco describes as a glum frontier fort whose only attraction is a ridiculous column erected for Nero), you can still visit some of its "sights" today...like the "ridiculous column"

This is the fourth novel in the mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco, an informer and sleuth in Rome at the time of Vespasian. A series of books that have become hugely popular, so much so that the author is now at the forefront of historical mystery writers. It was probably a stroke of genius on her part to have novels that are extremely well researched and contain all the elements that would be and should be found in Rome in AD70, but to have a lead character who has the vocabulary of a present day New York cop. In this the fourth novel Falco and Helena Justina seem like old friends.

In this novel Falco has to leave his beloved Rome and travel to Germania, a land that is haunted by the ghosts of past massacres. Dark and dismal, cold and wet and huge parts of it covered by virtually impenetrable forests, where the bloodthirsty tribesmen feel at home and are more than ready to inflict another defeat on the Roman army, such as they did not many decades past.

Falco has the enter the most dangerous country known to Roman world, with a few trainee recruits, their Centurion and their Commander. Not just any old Roman officer but Camillus Justinus, the brother of Helena, who will cut Falco into little pieces and feed him to the fishes in the Tiber if he even thinks about returning without her favourite sibling.

All Lindsey Davis's books tend to be wordy, with lots of detail, but me, I like the detail. I thoroughly enjoyed this look at army life in the great Roman army stationed in Germany, corruption, graft and incompetence included; I liked the view of what civilian life was like in both Germanies (Romanized and free), with all that implied to how the every day person lived. The subplots were amusing. The relationship between Marcus and Helena continues to develop. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

THE IRON HAND OF MARS is less of a genre mystery than most of the others, but this wild romp through Germania is, I think, Davis' best Falco book so far, with the possible exception of the first one, SILVER PIGS. Her amazing knowledge of the period, as if she'd time-traveled, is skilfully interwoven with the personal relationships among Falco, Helena, and Helena's extremely likeable brother. She presents the Roman army's military ambitions (and snafus) with enough zest to awaken a love of history in all but the most jaded, and her portraits of Cerialis and the other high-rankers, both offstage and on, had me laughing out loud.

If you haven't studied Roman history, you can do it "fictionally"--starting out around 100 BC with Colleen McCullough's Marius-Sulla-Caesar novels (so superior to McCullough's THE "CORN" BIRDS), then going to Robert Graves' three Claudius books, which take you up to Nero (brrrr!), and finishing up with Lindsey Davis. I can scarcely wait for Vesuvius to blow in 79 AD!

I am an avid fan of Lindsey Davis's books. The premise is film noir in Rome, but instead of a Sam Spade, Marcus Didius Falco is a lovable, overconfident, not-altogether-that-tough detective whose adventures are great fun. Although the background on wars may seem dense, it's wonderful to get a feel for the history and the second half of the book in spellbinding.

This book is a great introduction to the Falco detective series by Lindsey Davis. I liked this novel so much that I also purchased the audio version from Audible (an Amazon company).

This story is set in 71 AD in Germania Libera. Falco acts as an agent sent with the authority of emperor Vespasian to find a missing commander whose loyalties are suspect. His legionary service with Legio II Augusta, around 59 AD in Britain until his discharge on medical reasons by 69 AD from an unknown location, make him an ideal candidate for the job.

Falco is a typical soldier. His is tough, rough and comes from the lower classes of Rome. His girlfriend, Helena Justina, is a senator's daughter who is educated, refined and politically savvy. The juxtaposition of these two characters adds tremendous entertainment to this novel.

Once you have read this novel I am sure you will want to read others by this author.