Rating: 
Summary: Superior detail--funny and rich
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: The Old Gray Mare Ain?t What She Used to Be.
Review: Lovely job. This one was just plain fun once it got started. It reads well. I don't think Ms. Davis' strength has ever been the puzzle. No one would mistake her for Agatha Christie. On the other hand, she's a lot more enjoyable to read. Yes, one could wish the mystery were tidied up better, but then the whole thing might not be so nicely spiced. As it is, I enjoyed myself hugely. (Note the wonderful "Briton" playright who gets by without royalties by being popular with the general public and hence sharing in the ticket sales. Several rather delicious references to a Vespasian-era Shakespeare. We were amused.)
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable
Review: Lovely job. This one was just plain fun once it got started. It reads well. I don't think Ms. Davis' strength has ever been the puzzle. No one would mistake her for Agatha Christie. On the other hand, she's a lot more enjoyable to read. Yes, one could wish the mystery were tidied up better, but then the whole thing might not be so nicely spiced. As it is, I enjoyed myself hugely. (Note the wonderful "Briton" playright who gets by without royalties by being popular with the general public and hence sharing in the ticket sales. Several rather delicious references to a Vespasian-era Shakespeare. We were amused.)
Rating:
Summary: If Philip Marlowe Had A Lot of Relatives...
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: If Philip Marlowe Had A Lot of Relatives...
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Better in Rome
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: No Bad Luck for the 13th Outing so far as I'm concerned.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: No Bad Luck for the 13th Outing so far as I'm concerned.
Review: 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.
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