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<\/a><\/p>\nLindsey 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,\u00a0 Stephen Saylor,\u00a0 and Robert Harris to mention a few.\u00a0 There are now an even dozen novels about the sleuth Flavia Albia, adopted daughter of Falco, and counting.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But as the novels progressed I have liked them more and more.\u00a0 This one begins, and ends with a death of a woman in the Tiber.\u00a0 Apparently its true that revenge is a drink best served cold.\u00a0 Here is the Amazon description of the 380 page, page turner.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst 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 \u2013 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\u2019s 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\u2019s vicious nemesis, Albia is determined to find out the truth behind the murder and finally have her revenge.<\/p>\n
Florius is the husband of the leader of the Balbinus, one of Rome\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davis writes well, and she is often witty, but this novel is deadly serious about the plight of \u2018kept\u2019 and abused women in a world where men rule the roost.\u00a0 Sadly, it is still a timely tale today, in over-sexed and over-sexualized America.\u00a0 One of the things I appreciate about Davis\u2019 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.\u00a0 \u00a0There are some life lessons to learn from these folks.\u00a0 \u00a0Though 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.\u00a0 I only hope she will keep writing.\u00a0 It\u2019s well worth the read, and you learn some Roman history and culture along the way.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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,\u00a0 Stephen Saylor,\u00a0 and Robert Harris to mention a few.\u00a0 There are now an even dozen novels about the sleuth Flavia Albia, adopted daughter of Falco, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":67401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14799],"class_list":["post-67398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-death-all-pale-and-sicklied-over"],"yoast_head":"\n
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