Customer Reviews

Saturnalia

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Lindsey Davis was born in Birmingham but now lives in Greenwich. After an English degree at Oxford she joined the Civil Service but now writes full time. In 1999 she received the Sherlock Award for Best Comic Detective for her creation, Marcus Didius Falco. Lindsey Davis's books are eagerly awaited by the large following of readers she has gathered together with her Falco books and I am not ashamed to say that I am one of them. There are several authors that write similar books and I enjoy reading their books too, but the Falco books just seem to have that little bit extra that I cannot put my finger on.

Saturnalia, as anyone with an interest in Roman history is a holiday. The daytime is just something that comes before the night and the wild parties that the city of Rome has always been famous for. It is the ideal time for a returning Roman general to be given his `Triumph' something very rarely accorded to a victorious leader of Rome's mighty legions. The general has a famous enemy of Rome as his captive and wishes to use her as a ritual sacrifice at his Triumph. But things go horribly wrong, she acquires a mysterious illness and then a young man is brutal murdered and she escapes from house arrest.

Falco has to pit his wits against his old rival and enemy Anacrites a man Falco's mother once admired, but she was in a majority of one. Can either of them find the fugitive before she becomes an embarrassment to the government. With all the mayhem that comes with the holiday season the search seems impossible and only Falco seems to notice that death is stalking the streets of the city.

It is the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. The days are short, the nights are for wild parties. A general has captured a famous enemy of Rome, and brings her home to adorn his Triumph as a ritual sacrifice. The logistics go wrong; she acquires a mystery illness - then a young man is horrendously murdered and she escapes from house arrest. Marcus Didius Falco is pitted against his old rival, the Chief Spy Anacrites, in a race to find the fugitive before her presence angers the public and makes the government look stupid. Falco has other priorities, for Helena's brother Justinus has also vanished, perhaps fatally involved once more with the great lost love of his youth. Against the riotous backdrop of the season of misrule, the search seems impossible and only Falco seems to notice that some dark agency is bringing death to the city streets...

We've had to wait a bit for this one, but it was worth the wait! Lindsey Davis is at her best here with fast-talking, fast-thinking Falco and his hilarious entourage. The best part about these books are the characters, and it's like they're old friends when you read about their hilarious adventures again. Falco's domestic bliss and its inherent problems make for very funny reading. And the mystery is always fun too. This book is set in Rome, and it is set around the Saturnalia holiday (around the end of December) in the first century A.D. Falco seems to be the only one in Rome during this holiday time that realizes that people are dying in large numbers on the city streets. And when he uncovers the reason behind these deaths, it is a chilling solution. At the same time he is trying to find an escaped political prisoner. He gets up to more highjinks than you can shake a stick at. This is a truly funny book, and Lindsey Davis is my favourite author.