For those not in the know, Falco is a private informer (private investigator to you) in ancient Rome. He gets the dirtiest jobs and is frequently beaten up, His friend Petronius and his girlfriend Helena are close at hand to pick him up and dust him down. Although featuring `dark deeds' the stories are told with some humour. My review concentrates on the presentation as a radio dramatisation rather than on the story itself.
This is the fifth Falco story to be given the BBC radio dramatisation treatment and I feel it's the least successful. This is simply down to the story being compressed into too short a time. On the radio this went out in 15 minute slots over two weeks, these have now been stitched together on 2 discs. Three of the other four treatments were given 3 discs each and that extra time allowed the story to be told at a less hectic pace. Too frequently Falco tells us of someone he's spoken to whereas in the past we'd have heard the conversation.
I'm afraid I haven't read any of these books so I can't say how much of the story has been left out, it's a complex plot in any case and so needs all the time and space if can get to develop and reveal itself to the listener.
Overall this is a fine series featuring some good actors. If you've enjoyed the previous sets then don't let me put you off, add this one to your collection but don't expect it to be quite as good as the previous ones. If you're completely new to the series then try Shadows in Bronze (it's actually the second one but the first one, The Silver Pigs, also suffers from being abridged to 2 discs, although not to the extent that this one does).