TWO FOR THE LIONS [Paperback]

LINDSEY DAVIS (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: ARROW; paperback / softback edition (2001)
• ASIN: B000S5TK1M
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,401,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lindsey Davis' Roman novels begin chronologically with The Course of Honour, the love story of the Emperor Vespasian and Antonia Caenis. Her bestselling mystery series features laid-back First Century detective Marcus Didius Falco and his partner Helena Justina, plus friends, relations, pets and bitter enemy the Chief Spy; there is a reader handboook, 'Falco: the Official Companion'. 'Master and God' set in the time of the Emperor Domitian, will be published in 2012. She has also written an epic novel of the English Civil War and Commonwelath, 'Rebels and Traitors'. Her books are translated into many languages and serialised on BBC Radio 4. Past Chair of the Crimewriters' Association and a Vice President of the Classical Association, she has won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the Dagger in the Library, and a Sherlock award for Falco as Best Comic Detective. She has also been awarded the Premio Colosseo for enhancing the image of Rome, and the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement as a mystery writer.
She was born in Birmingham but now lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marcus Didius Falco does it again!, June 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Two for the Lions (The Tenth Marcus Didius Falco Novel) (Hardcover)

To get the worst out of the way first the only thing that wasn't quite right with this latest instalment of Marcus Didius Falco was the hero's current relationship with Petronius Longinus. The preceding novel did not leave us with the impression of bitterness that 'Two For The Lions' conveys. Aside from that, what can I say? Superb characterization, imaginative plots and plenty of light humour! The easy reading of all Lindsey Davis' novels makes each trip into the Roman world of seedy back-door politics and informers a delight. The development of Anacrites and the relationship between Helena Justina and Marcus Didius is entirely credible and always amusing. Long may the series continue.............

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one more for the fans of falco, June 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Two for the Lions (The Tenth Marcus Didius Falco Novel) (Hardcover)

Davis finds yet another seam on Rome's underbelly to pick open as Falco investigates the death of a moonlighting Circus lion, and other possibly related oddities. What I love about these books is the attention to detail that the author uses to submerge you in Falco's world; it's like what Mary Renault did with ancient Greece. Renault and Davis also share the gift of being able to get into the skin of their male central characters.Unlike Renault, Davis seems equally interested in her female characters, and Two For the Lions has some good ones, as well as the further development of everyone's favourite pest, Anacrites. Good mystery, good history. I wish my copy wasn't sitting on the kitchen table back in England...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another good one, October 11, 2000

By 

tertius3 (MI United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Two for the Lions (The Tenth Marcus Didius Falco Novel) (Hardcover)

Davis has found more fascinating facets of ancient Rome for the informer Falco to explore: the emperor Vespasian's tax census, gladiatorial games, and a family adventure to the wild North African provinces. Her very well written stories feature character as much as mystery (see especially her exceptional The Course of Honour, a Roman love story). An odd twist is that for a long time here the only murder victim is a lion--quite beneath a Roman's notice--as Falco takes the thankless, and dangerous, job of screwing money out of rich animal suppliers. (See Editorial Reviews, above, for the plot.)

Davis' deep knowledge of ancient Rome in the first century of the Empire is expressed off-handedly; the Roman customs are so well painted, pertinent, and integrated to the plot they are almost throw aways. This quality of immersion may account for readers having difficulty on first acquaintance if they know nothing of Roman mores (Davis supplies no historical notes a la Steven Saylor). For example, types of gladiators are mentioned early, but the critical differences only become clear (or important) when you see them in the arena later. Some of the confusion, suspense, and mysterious clues in fact depend on the reader's ignorance, but the depth of the characters is greatly enhanced if you already know their backgrounds from previous books. I strongly recommend starting from the first volume, Silver Pigs, also because there is a strong biographical (and cross-referential) element to the ever-changing relationship of plebian Falco and his spirited patrician love Helena, their family members, and continuing minor characters, each book spanning about a half a year in their collective lives. Readers new to Davis may gain from reading the amazing new novel, Household Gods, by Tarr and Turtledove, because it makes gut-wrenchingly understandable (right down to the absence of toilet paper) the life of ordinary Romans through the eyes of a 20th century woman (although it is not a mystery).

Few of the incidents in Davis' story are extraneous, all digressions ingeniously contributing to the plot and eventually resolving through action. Davis' ability to explain plot elements through actions rather than prattle is one of her outstanding accomplishments and keeps an intricate book moving along. Her language is more ribald than usual and the climax is quite bloody. I find her stories are best when tightly focused in the city of Rome, becoming diffuse whenever Falco goes overseas as here to North Africa (or Last Act in Palmyra), due perhaps to limited development of wide-open foreign atmospheres. Her jocular tone and cynicism about bureaucracy (herself a former British government servant) may diminish the sense of environment, but impart wry elements of lightness to the stories that are missing from serious Saylor's equally superb Roma Sub Rosa series. Surely it is curious that all the most popular Roman historical mystery novels feature private spys (rather than lawyers, police, or Imperial spys).