Lindsey Davis is now the most prolific of all the novelists who focus is on ancient Rome, and that is saying something, considering we are also talking about Colleen McCullough, Stephen Saylor, and Robert Harris to mention a few. There are now an even dozen novels about the sleuth Flavia Albia, adopted daughter of Falco, and counting. I did not much care for the first of the novels in the series as it portrayed Flavia anachronistically as some sort of proto-feminist, way ahead of her time. But as the novels progressed I have liked them more and more. This one begins, and ends with a death of a woman in the Tiber. Apparently its true that revenge is a drink best served cold. Here is the Amazon description of the 380 page, page turner.
“First century Rome is plagued by all the evils the have beset major cities since time immemorial: crime, corruption, squalor, and worst of all, tourists. When a barge full of those entitled creatures arrives in Rome, they hit all the touristy hot-spots (the Amphitheatre, the Capitol, the dodgy bars with dubious entertainments) before departing for the next destination – leaving behind one of their party, dead and floating in the Tiber. While the authorities first try to pass her death off as a suicide, it’s quickly proved that the victim strangled to death and her body dumped. When Flavia Albia, a private informer, learns that the victim was in Rome searching for the man who abandoned her, Florius, Albia’s vicious nemesis, Albia is determined to find out the truth behind the murder and finally have her revenge.
Florius is the husband of the leader of the Balbinus, one of Rome’s most vicious criminal gangs, giving him even more reason to have murdered his former mistress. Currently engaged in a brutal turf war, with bodies dropping everywhere, Florius is fighting for his very survival and has little interest in one dead body. Now Albia must risk everything, including the life she has carefully built, if she is finally to bring Florius to justice. If justice is even possible.”
Davis writes well, and she is often witty, but this novel is deadly serious about the plight of ‘kept’ and abused women in a world where men rule the roost. Sadly, it is still a timely tale today, in over-sexed and over-sexualized America. One of the things I appreciate about Davis’ writing is that not only does she know the social world of Rome in the late first century, and does not glorify it as some do, but she is also wise enough to not always tie up all loose ends, very much like the way actual life is as well. I like the lessons one gets from watching how the marriage between Tiberius and Flavia works, two strong, bright, hard working persons, and how the give and take in love is worked out. There are some life lessons to learn from these folks. Though she has written 25 other novels, and though I still prefer her Falco series which is often hilarious and great fun, the Flavia Albia series is very good and has a depth and gravity to it mostly missing in the earlier series. I only hope she will keep writing. It’s well worth the read, and you learn some Roman history and culture along the way.
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