Product Description

Nobody was poisoned at the dinner for the Society of Oliver Oil Producers of Baetica, though in retrospect this was quite a surprise...Inimitable sleuth Marcus Didius Falco is back with a vengeance. On one night, a man is killed and Rome's Chief of Spies left for dead. This leaves no one except Falco to conduct the investigation. Soon he is plunged into the fiercely competitive world of olive oil production. Political intrigue, an exotic Spanish dancer and impending fatherhood all add to Falco's troubles.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22017 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From the Back Cover
Nobody was poisoned at the dinner for the Society of Oliver Oil Producers of Baetica, though in retrospect this was quite a surprise...

Inimitable sleuth Marcus Didius Falco is back with a vengeance. On one night, a man is killed and Rome's Chief of Spies left for dead/ This leaves no one except Falco to conduct the investigation. Soon he is plunged into the fiercely competitive world of olive oil production. Political intrigue, an exotic Spanish dancer and impending fatherhood all add to Falco's troubles.

'With the passing of Ellis Peters, the title Queen of the Historical Whodunnit is temporarily vacant. Lindsey Davis is well suited to assume it - and she is funnier than Peters... Davis' books make olf Rome sound fun... it is all so enjoyable' The Times

'The cast of characters is as various, corruptm nasty and gnarled as the best of Dickens, described with similar scope and loving attention.' mail on Sunday

'Highly readable, funny and colourful.' Times Literary Supplement

About the Author
Lindsey Davis has written nineteen novels, beginning with The Course of Honour, the love story of the Emperor Vespasian and Antonia Caenis. Her bestselling mystery series features laid-back First Century detective Marcus Didius Falco and his partner Helena Justina, plus friends, relations, pets and bitter enemy the Chief Spy. Her books are translated into many languages and serialised on BBC Radio 4. Past Chair of the Crimewriters' Association and a Vice President of the Classical Association, she has won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the Dagger in the Library, and a Sherlock award for Falco as Best Comic Detective. She was born in Birmingham but now lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Truly entertaining
If you enjoy mysteries and would like to know more about life in ancient Rome you will adore Falco and beautiful patrician Helena. This is a truly enjoyable book - this time Falco is out of Italy in Spain,and Helena is expecting their first child. Once you start the series you will be counting the months to the next Falco book.

'Pressing Times' for Our hero
This is the eighth novel in the mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco, an informer and sleuth in Rome at the time of Vespasian. A series of books that have become hugely popular, so much so that the author is now at the forefront of historical mystery writers. It was probably a stroke of genius on her part to have novels that are extremely well researched and contain all the elements that would be and should be found in the Roman world of circa AD70, but to have a lead character who has the vocabulary of a present day New York cop. In this the eighth novel Falco and Helena Justina almost seem like long lost relations to the reader.

A dinner for the Olive Oil Producers of Baetica, goes badly wrong when one man is killed and another - Anacrites, the Emperor's spy - is seriously wounded and left for dead. Because Anacrites is to be laid up for some time, Falco is brought back into the Emperor's fold as imperial sleuth. Falco is plunged head long into the world of olive oil production and heads out to Baetica.

It soon becomes apparent to Falco that the killing was no simple murder. Falco and Helena are staying in Baetica, using the excuse of inspecting the villa and olive crops of Helena Justina's father, Camillus Verus. This case is not the only thing on Falco's mind either, impending fatherhood is creeping up on our Roman sleuth.

Disappointing
Having read a number of reviews of Lindsey Davis' work, I took the plunge and bought the book. Unlike the classical thriller, the plot is very slow moving and lacks a punch at the end. The desciptive passages are OK but over done with respect to plot and character development. The reader is led through a long description of Roman times when surely the important thing is the plot and the relationship between characters. Roman times were just as violent as now but this book appears to clean up the description to paint a slightly strange view of Roman behaviour. In fact the true plot and developments could be distilled into 10 pages, there is none of the character of Morse or tension that Alistair Maclean developed.