Product Description

With safe seas, good roads, a common currency, and lots of interesting conquered territory, the Romans naturally invented tourism. They believed in a life of leisure - fine for those who could afford it - and some would set off on their travels for maybe five years at a time. As these ancient culture vultures descended on the sights, the tour guide was born to cater to their needs...'Marcus, you must help me!' Stunned by a dramatic appeal from his otherwise cool mother-in-law, Falco cannot resist. His brother-in-law, Aulus, has been diverted from his route to Athens university by a man whose newly married daughter disappeared, with her husband, while visiting the Olympic Games as part of an extended wedding trip. Suspecting a classic cover-up, Aulus enrols Falco's help in solving the case. And of course his mother-in-law hopes to hurry her son along to university by passing the case over to Falco. Joining the rest of the married couple's tour group on the remains of their Grand Tour, Falco and Helena seize the opportunity to interview the owner/manager of 'Seven Sights Travel', as well as the other guests. Seemingly not getting very far, they can at least make the most of the splendid sights; but finally, on reaching Delphi, Falco and Helena unravel the mystery of the bride and groom...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82470 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
See Delphi and Die is built, like several of Lindsay Davis' recent episodes of the adventures of her Roman private detective Falco, around the fact that the ancient world had a surprising number of versions of amenities we consider modern. Here, for example, we get the Roman tourist industry, with the newly rich and the old gentry buying package trips that might last for years, and that take them to the games at Olympia, to the oracle at Delphi and to the sights of Athens. When young women on these tours start turning up dead, Falco persuades the authorities to let him investigate. This is a classic whodunit as well as a Classical one--we get to know the tour party well and follow Falco and his wife Helena Justina as they piece together the inconsistencies and untruths in everyone's stories.

Like many of Lindsay Davis' books, See Delphi and Die is inventive in the twists and turns of its plot and includes one of the nastier last page twists of narrative she has ever imagined. The only real weakness here is that over seventeen books, Davis has built up a large cast of supporting characters and has to find in every book tasks for some of them to do, producing rather too many red herrings in the process. --Roz Kaveney

From the Publisher
A family mystery and missing newlyweds in Lindsey Davis' seventeenth novel in the bestselling Marcus Didius Falco series

Falco and Helena hear that a young girl and a newly-wed woman, both Roman visitors, have been murdered at Olympia; the authorities will not investigate properly, so Falco steps in. After making himself unwelcome at the hidebound sanctuary, he soon finds himself up against Seven Sights, its absentee tour-guide and its mixed bunch of customers, some of whom have things to hide.

The search for culture is far from genteel – and it can be very dangerous. Both the bridegroom and Helena’s brother go missing in the birthplace of myth, as Falco and Helena struggle with a case that may contain worse features than any they have dealt with yet…
Praise for Lindsey Davis:
‘Like visiting old friends in a familiar and endearing, if sometimes bizarre, environment. Jokes and skulduggery crowd the pages.’ Guardian
‘Evocative… Reassuringly modern… It is little wonder that so many find it pleasant and undemanding to go on holiday with this version of Philip Marlowe in a toga.’ Times Literary Supplement

About the Author
Lindsey Davis's first Falco novel, The Silver Pigs, was published in 1989. Since then, her novel Two For the Lions won the inaugural Ellis Peters Historical Dagger in 1998, and in 1999 she received the Sherlock Award for Best Comic Detective for her creation, Marcus Didius Falco. Lindsey's last ten novels have all been Sunday Times hardback bestsellers. She was born in Birmingham but now lives in Greenwich.

Customer Reviews

Grisley Meal
When Falco had been asked to see what he could find out about the death of a young bride on a Greek tour, he wisely refused but fate in the form of his mother in law intervened when she asked him to find her son.
Given that this is the 17th outing for Falco, you could have forgiven Lindsey Davis for coming up with a weaker story but it isn't. The story is interesting as a travelogue through an area of the ancient world not often covered - Romano Greece. Not that we ought to take the story as gospel for Ms Davis has Falco give his usual cynical twist on events rather than follow 'proper' history slavishly. Despite this humourous overlay, the mystery of the disappearing brides leads to a truly shocking finale!

Not her best
Still a Falco novel by Ms Davis that is not her best is still great fun and well worth the price. It seems to me that this may have been a bit of a filler in the series, a chance to mature Albia and Aulus for future plots and to introduce us to some more of the Falco's family. Or was it a way for the author to vent her spleen at some poor travel firm that ruined her holidays? I'm sure she has form for this sort of thing with plumbers......I may just miss the encounters with the Imperial family too much maybe I should stick to Robert Graves for a while? Still despite my disappointment Ms Davis has hooked me for her next novel, I can't wait - I really want to tell you why but if your a fan like me and haven't read this novel yet you wouldn't forgive me, ah well until next year.

Falco Seems like an Old Friend Now
What more can one say about the books of Lindsey Davis, the Queen of Roman sleuth writing. Perhaps it is her attention to detail in what after all are supposed to be light hearted novels. Perhaps it is the main characters Falco and his wife Helena. If Lindsey Davis has written a bad `Falco' novel then I must have missed it. But I know I haven't because I have read them all.

A young girl and a newly wed woman, both of them Roman visitors have been found murdered at Olympia.

The authorities seem to be dragging their heels over investigating the case so Falco decides to step in. After making himself an unwelcome nuisance at the sanctuary, Falco soon find himself up against several people who seem to have plenty to hide.

Falco and Helena find themselves struggling with a case that may be more complex than anything they have attempted before . . .

I know the storyline is brief , but to say anymore would spoil the story for the reader. If you have read Lindsey Davis before, you know how good her books are. If you haven't you don't know what your missing.