More Roman detective work in soggy Britain

Usual professional job from the narrator. Set in Britain, not Falco's favourite place. His family is developing and relationships are changing. If you like the series, you will like this. Also teaches you history without you realising

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Baroom Brawl

If you like far off locations, exotic alluring assassins, everyone and their brother out to kill you, two fisted drinking and barroom brawls, then this book is for you. Many things are recognizable like trying to get reimbursed for your expensed, having shoddy fly by night contractors working on your house, working with family members and avoiding offending people with political pull. It is just too familiar and then suddenly remembering that this all takes place 2000 years ago.

I am a historical type of guy and I really liked reading/hearing the historical facts interwoven with the every day life of adventurous people. Go get um Falco.

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4 people found this helpful

Not one of the better Falco books

I usually enjoy Ms. Davis's Falco books, but I couldn't even finish this one - even on audio! At first I thought it had to do with the setting of Roman Britain. But two of Ruth Downie's excellent Ruso novels have a similar setting. I decided it was the abundance of new characters - you really can't tell the players without a scorecard. Also, readers who have enjoyed the interaction between Falco and Helena Justina will be disappointed by her relative absence in this chapter. By the end of the book, I just didn't care what happened to anyone.

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This series just gets better

I truly enjoy historical mysteries, and Lindsey Davis knows how to pull it off. The narrator does a fine job with creating the character voices. I truly think this series can only get better, especially with character development. Defiantly worth the credit;

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The More Things Change...

This might be the best of the series. It has the expected combination of fascinating historical detail, fall-down-laughing comedy, and the delivery of cliff-hanging action. The life painted here reaches up through the millenia and touches us as if there's no space between -- we'll all recognize the bickering architects and builders, the pub closers, the extraneous relatives, the salesmen. The narrator bothered me at first -- he sounds almost Australian, which seemed an anachronism -- but I got over it when I discovered how skillful he is. He truly understands Falco and his irreverance, his strutting, his loyalty, his irony, his common sense and his courage. Not good bedtime reading, though, because you'll be laughing instead of sleeping.

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7 people found this helpful

Love this series!

I have read and re-read the books, and now am having fun listening to them on audio. Great narration! These novels have a little bit of something for everyone- they're good mysteries, they're an interesting look at the Roman Empire, and the main character is funny. Smart, but also light and entertaining. So far there has only been one book in the series I haven't absolutely loved.

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2 people found this helpful

It’s great, but there are better episodes

Don’t skip this just because I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars. I do so enjoy this series, and I enjoyed this one a lot, too. However, this one seemed a bit more formulaic with not quite as good a plot as some of the previous ones. I do identify with Falco’s wrath at the bathhouse construction team - I, too, as I’m sure many people, have had workers who don’t complete the job, who take longer than they promised, who cut corners in the quality, etc. One of the things I love about all of the Falco series is that I learn something new about Roman history. This time I learned about the palace of Togidubnus. Well, these days historians say it most likely was his, but there are other ideas. And I’m delighted to know that I can visit it, now called Fishbourne Palace in Britain. I will definitely put it on my “to see” list for an upcoming visit to the UK (when I am willing to travel again, post COVID-19). I have seen other Roman sites in the UK, and they are always fascinating, and some of my visits were inspired by books I’ve listened to. The performance was not as good as some. Though Rodska read the first episode, and I liked the way he did it, and it then took getting used to when switched to Gordon Griffin, I think I’ve concluded that I like Gordon Griffin’s narrations more. So I’m sorry to see that he does not read any of the upcoming volumes. Rodska sounds gruffer, which at first I thought is more fitting for the character, but sometimes he swallows words, and he is not as clear. Also, there are inconsistencies in the way the names are pronounced. I think that should have been standardized for all of the narrations. For example, Griffin says aNACrites, while Rodska says anaCRITes. It took me a little time to realize it is the same person. I know it is a nit to pick, but I think standard pronunciation among the readers would make sense, given that it is not one reader (or even two) for the whole 20 episode series. Anyway, if you’ve come this far (and you should, starting with episode 1), you certainly will have some hours of fun with this episode as well.

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One of the Better Series

Again Lindsey Davis pulls it off! If you like historical novels - not just those ones about the wealthy, than this series is for you. The author not only gets the authentic feel of classical Rome but fills it with real characters who have both strength and weakness (both male and female). I feel the real strength of this series however is the humor. Yes, it has all the tension and who-done-it, that all first rate mysteries have; but the interaction of the primary characters is priceless. The story's are both easy to listen too and follow. I some time have my time broken-up and can only listen to the book in small chunks - but I have no problem picking up and enjoying the storyline. I would recommend trying out any one of the Falco mysteries.

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2 people found this helpful

Fun Read

First, I recommend you read the Falco books in order. This was the first Falco book for me and while it was enjoyable on its own, I do think it would have been nicer to know more of the characters. There is a fair amt of dry humor scattered throughout the book which was good. In addition, it was fun to see how universal life problems are handled in ancient Rome (shoddy workmanship, private investigations). It was a bit repetitious occasionally but overall a good book for the bus commute.
The narrator did a good job and somehow even though he was using a gravelly English, 1940s private-eye type voice, it seemed to fit just fine.

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1 person found this helpful

Clever Repartee

.... that is typical of Lndsey Davis. But, it gets tedious after a while. A pretty good story, though.

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