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Jul. 31st, 2010 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennariaSCANDAL TAKES A HOLIDAY, by Lindsey Davis.
Cover copy: Set in ancient Rome, the mysteries of Lindsey Davis featuring sleuth Marcus Didius Falco are "one of the best historical series," says the *Detroit Free Press*, filled with "the wisecracking humor, scathing social commentary, and rollicking adventure that are Davis's trademarks." Now, in a new novel, the intrepid Falco lands a case in Rome's squalid port of Ostia and enters a most dark and dangerous place...
Infamia - a pseudonym for the sleazy rascal who writes the gossip colum for Rome's *Daily Gazette* - has vanished while claiming to be visiting an "aunt" in Ostia. With no juicy scandal to print, his employers want him found. It's a perfect job for private eye Marcus Didius Falco.
Falco's best friend, L. Petronius Longus, is already in Ostia on duty with the local vigiles and Falco expects to enjoy some good company and tolerable vino as well. Alas, not only is the wine wretched and the vigiles rowdy, but Petro - deep in amour with Falco's sister Maia - is discovering that the problem with love is the Falco family in-laws who come with it. On the bright side, Falco soon has a lead in Infamia's disappearance.
Following a trail that begins with a little boy whose mother "won't wake up" and a gardener about to be decapitated with some hedge shears, Falco finds that his inquires will put him on a perilous road. Even as his patrician wife and partner, Helena Justina, feels the icy hand of terror, Falco stumbled into something more deadly than a missing person's case. In fact, what lies beneath Infamia's disappearance is an underworld of cutthroat villains and chilling deeds. Now, with his wits and courage tested, Falco may be going to *vitam impedere vero* (stake one's life for the truth), for, like life, this case may end in the cold chambers of the grave...
Gender of detective: male
This should be right up my alley, dammit. I was a Classics major in college (well, Classics and English double major). Rome! Strong female characters! Hell, this installment even has pirates!
And yet, this is the second or third time I've picked up one of the Falco novels, and the second or third time that I've had to push myself to finish it. It's not bad writing, aside from the info-dumps (difficult to avoid, between the first-person narration and the ancient setting). But it's also very much hardboiled detective, both in narrative style and plot construction, and as just discussed, that's not much my thing. Even the pirates aren't the fun, Pirates of the Caribbean sort, but more the dark, nasty, 'kidnap women, hold them for ransom, do nasty things to them in the meantime' sort. Women might be strong, but they're not the prime movers in this universe - which is accurate to both history and genre, but still grinds me like sand in my shoe.
I suspect that in the end, it comes down to whether you enjoy the hardboiled detective style. If you do, don't worry about the Roman part, that'll be explained aplenty. If you don't...well, not even Rome can save it.
*
Part one of an all-Roman hour. Because I like themes, I do. :-)
Cover copy: Set in ancient Rome, the mysteries of Lindsey Davis featuring sleuth Marcus Didius Falco are "one of the best historical series," says the *Detroit Free Press*, filled with "the wisecracking humor, scathing social commentary, and rollicking adventure that are Davis's trademarks." Now, in a new novel, the intrepid Falco lands a case in Rome's squalid port of Ostia and enters a most dark and dangerous place...
Infamia - a pseudonym for the sleazy rascal who writes the gossip colum for Rome's *Daily Gazette* - has vanished while claiming to be visiting an "aunt" in Ostia. With no juicy scandal to print, his employers want him found. It's a perfect job for private eye Marcus Didius Falco.
Falco's best friend, L. Petronius Longus, is already in Ostia on duty with the local vigiles and Falco expects to enjoy some good company and tolerable vino as well. Alas, not only is the wine wretched and the vigiles rowdy, but Petro - deep in amour with Falco's sister Maia - is discovering that the problem with love is the Falco family in-laws who come with it. On the bright side, Falco soon has a lead in Infamia's disappearance.
Following a trail that begins with a little boy whose mother "won't wake up" and a gardener about to be decapitated with some hedge shears, Falco finds that his inquires will put him on a perilous road. Even as his patrician wife and partner, Helena Justina, feels the icy hand of terror, Falco stumbled into something more deadly than a missing person's case. In fact, what lies beneath Infamia's disappearance is an underworld of cutthroat villains and chilling deeds. Now, with his wits and courage tested, Falco may be going to *vitam impedere vero* (stake one's life for the truth), for, like life, this case may end in the cold chambers of the grave...
Gender of detective: male
This should be right up my alley, dammit. I was a Classics major in college (well, Classics and English double major). Rome! Strong female characters! Hell, this installment even has pirates!
And yet, this is the second or third time I've picked up one of the Falco novels, and the second or third time that I've had to push myself to finish it. It's not bad writing, aside from the info-dumps (difficult to avoid, between the first-person narration and the ancient setting). But it's also very much hardboiled detective, both in narrative style and plot construction, and as just discussed, that's not much my thing. Even the pirates aren't the fun, Pirates of the Caribbean sort, but more the dark, nasty, 'kidnap women, hold them for ransom, do nasty things to them in the meantime' sort. Women might be strong, but they're not the prime movers in this universe - which is accurate to both history and genre, but still grinds me like sand in my shoe.
I suspect that in the end, it comes down to whether you enjoy the hardboiled detective style. If you do, don't worry about the Roman part, that'll be explained aplenty. If you don't...well, not even Rome can save it.
*
Part one of an all-Roman hour. Because I like themes, I do. :-)