Two For The Lions (Falco 10)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
The further Davies gets into her series of private eye (or, to be precise, public informer) thrillers set in the Rome of Vespasian, the more she learns what it is that she does best. Falco is working for the tax department, investigating used gladiator scams, and stumbles into more murders. The various mysteries here--the stabbing of the arena- lion trained to eat criminals, the murder of a famous gladiator generally considered past his prime--are solved elegantly enough and with a genial ruthlessness appropriate to the period in which they are set.
Davies never forgets that this society rests on the backs of slaves and has a taste for bloodshed which even we might consider excessive. But what we read Davies for is partly for the continuing soap opera of on-the-make Falco, his upper-class wife Helena and their variously rackety, lowlife or snobbish connections, and partly for her simply wonderful knowledge of how things worked. We learn, for example, a lot about the wild- beast trade and provincial resentments in a North Africa which the Romans still suspect are more Carthaginian than not; Davies's novels are entertaining and informative, and leave one wanting more.--Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
The much loved, bestselling Falco series reissued with new jacket artwork
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There's no place like Rome, where all roads lead to, and Marcus Didius Falco, ace Roman Sleuth, finds himself in another dilemma in author Lindsey Davis' "Two for the Lions." And Davis has no trouble maintaining her momentum in this latest of the Falco series.
This time Falco is working as a tax investigator, appointed by the Emperor Vaspacian himself--but it's no ordinary tax investigation! He's on the trail of fraud committed by the "bestiarii" (the slaugherers) and the "lanistae" (the suppliers for the gladiator games). This "game" is deadly and the affable (but quite competent) Falco finds that dinner for the lions may include himself! His pursuits lead him and his friend Helena to Tripoli--seems simple enough but first Falco has to render aid to Helena's youngest brother, who seems caught in the middle!
Riddled with bits of humor as well as first-form suspense, "Two for the Lions" also offers history-with-an-exciting-twist. In addition, Davis doesn't hesitate to take pot shots at the local bureaucracy, and politics, society (a real "Roman a clef"!). And she is sure not to disappoint her "legions" of fans!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the tenth in a series of excellent detective stories set in Vespasian's Roman Empire and featuring the informer Marcus Didius Falco. Informers in ancient Rome were something between a private detective and a government spy.
The book begins in December AD73. Falco and the patrician Helena Justina, who is now the mother of his daughter, consider themselves husband and wife by virtual of an old law, providing for the Roman equivalent of a so called "common law marriage" which says that if two people who live together have declared themselves married, they are.
Nevertheless, Falco feels uncomfortable at having involved senator's daughter Helena in such an irregular arrangement which the stuffier elements of Roman society would see as a disgrace to her. (And I dare say you can forgive a man a little insecurity when the son of the Emperor was sniffing around his girl a few books ago.) So he wants to make a fully honest woman of Helena with a proper wedding, and needs the money to join the Equestrian (middle class) order to be allowed to do so.
So he goes along with a scheme to earn the necessary money by working with his old enemy Anacrites, the Chief Spy, as inspectors checking tax returns as part of a census. Helena manages to get Falco and Anacrites the job through her friendship with the Emperor's mistress, Caenis (a real historial figure, about whom Lyndsey Davis has written a non-Falco novel, "The Course of Honour.")
But Falco and Anacrites have barely started on their census investigation, when the first person they audit, a supplier of dangerous animals and gladiators for the arena, is interrupted with the news that his star lion has been found dead in its cage with a broken spear in its side. Next a famous gladiator ends up dead. Something is not right in the arena.
The trail of investigation leads to North Africa, where Falco, Anacrites, and Falco's brother-in-law find themselves in a situation where at least one of them is almost certain to be "lionised" in the most painful sense of the word ...
I initially tried this series because I had enjoyed the "Cadfael" mediaeval detective stories by Ellis Peters. Where Cadfael is excellent, Falco is brilliant. Ellis Peters herself (or to use her real name, Edith Pargeter) said of the early books of the series, 'Lindsey Davis continues her exploration of Vespasian's Rome and Marcus Didius Falco's Italy with the same wit and gusto that made "The Silver Pigs" such a dazzling debut and her rueful, self-deprecating hero so irresistibly likeable.'
Funny, exciting, and based on a painstaking effort to re-create the world of the early Roman empire between 70 and 76 AD.
If you have met and enjoyed either the Cadfael or Thraxas series, this is even better.
It isn't absolutely essential to read these stories in sequence, as the mysteries Falco is trying to solve are all self-contained stories and each book can stand on its own. Having said that, there is some ongoing development of characters and relationships and I think reading them in the right order does improve the experience.
The full Falco series, in chronological order, consists at the moment of:
The Silver Pigs
Shadows in Bronze
Venus in Copper
The Iron Hand of Mars
Poseidon's Gold
Last Act in Palmyra
Time to Depart
A Dying Light in Corduba
Three Hands in the Fountain
Two for the Lions
One Virgin Too Many
Ode to a Banker
A Body in the Bath house
The Jupiter Myth
The Accusers
Scandal taks a Holiday
See Delphi and Die
Saturnalia
Alexandria
Nemesis (forthcoming)
I have read and can warmly recommend all of these up to and including Alexandria.
The book begins in December AD73. Falco and the patrician Helena Justina, who is now the mother of his daughter, consider themselves husband and wife by virtual of an old law, providing for the Roman equivalent of a so called "common law marriage" which says that if two people who live together have declared themselves married, they are.
Nevertheless, Falco feels uncomfortable at having involved senator's daughter Helena in such an irregular arrangement which the stuffier elements of Roman society would see as a disgrace to her. (And I dare say you can forgive a man a little insecurity when the son of the Emperor was sniffing around his girl a few books ago.) So he wants to make a fully honest woman of Helena with a proper wedding, and needs the money to join the Equestrian (middle class) order to be allowed to do so.
So he goes along with a scheme to earn the necessary money by working with his old enemy Anacrites, the Chief Spy, as inspectors checking tax returns as part of a census. Helena manages to get Falco and Anacrites the job through her friendship with the Emperor's mistress, Caenis (a real historial figure, about whom Lyndsey Davis has written a non-Falco novel, "The Course of Honour.")
But Falco and Anacrites have barely started on their census investigation, when the first person they audit, a supplier of dangerous animals and gladiators for the arena, is interrupted with the news that his star lion has been found dead in its cage with a broken spear in its side. Next a famous gladiator ends up dead. Something is not right in the arena.
The trail of investigation leads to North Africa, where Falco, Anacrites, and Falco's brother-in-law find themselves in a situation where at least one of them is almost certain to be "lionised" in the most painful sense of the word ...
I initially tried this series because I had enjoyed the "Cadfael" mediaeval detective stories by Ellis Peters. Where Cadfael is excellent, Falco is brilliant. Ellis Peters herself (or to use her real name, Edith Pargeter) said of the early books of the series, 'Lindsey Davis continues her exploration of Vespasian's Rome and Marcus Didius Falco's Italy with the same wit and gusto that made "The Silver Pigs" such a dazzling debut and her rueful, self-deprecating hero so irresistibly likeable.'
Funny, exciting, and based on a painstaking effort to re-create the world of the early Roman empire between 70 and 76 AD.
If you have met and enjoyed either the Cadfael or Thraxas series, this is even better.
It isn't absolutely essential to read these stories in sequence, as the mysteries Falco is trying to solve are all self-contained stories and each book can stand on its own. Having said that, there is some ongoing development of characters and relationships and I think reading them in the right order does improve the experience.
The full Falco series, in chronological order, consists at the moment of:
The Silver Pigs
Shadows in Bronze
Venus in Copper
The Iron Hand of Mars
Poseidon's Gold
Last Act in Palmyra
Time to Depart
A Dying Light in Corduba
Three Hands in the Fountain
Two for the Lions
One Virgin Too Many
Ode to a Banker
A Body in the Bath house
The Jupiter Myth
The Accusers
Scandal taks a Holiday
See Delphi and Die
Saturnalia
Alexandria
Nemesis (forthcoming)
I have read and can warmly recommend all of these up to and including Alexandria.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the tenth 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 tenth novel Falco and Helena Justina now have a baby girl (Three Hands in the Fountain)
It is AD73 and the Emperor Vespasian has come up with a good idea for making money. Why not hold a census, after all if the senate know who everyone is and where they live it will be much easier to impose taxes on them. Falco and Partner become Censors. Well someone has to do it. There job is to investigate fraudulent claims, a messy, but lucrative business.
Unfortunately for Falco his `partner' is none other than Anacrites, a no good low life and palace spy. While investigating the people who run the gladiator schools and wild beast shows, Falco is involved in the mysterious death of a lion, an escaped leopard and a dead gladiator. There is much rivalry among the men who organise the vast games in Rome. It is a cut throat world where life is cheap and killing a man comes as second nature to many of the people involved in Falco's latest case.
It is AD73 and the Emperor Vespasian has come up with a good idea for making money. Why not hold a census, after all if the senate know who everyone is and where they live it will be much easier to impose taxes on them. Falco and Partner become Censors. Well someone has to do it. There job is to investigate fraudulent claims, a messy, but lucrative business.
Unfortunately for Falco his `partner' is none other than Anacrites, a no good low life and palace spy. While investigating the people who run the gladiator schools and wild beast shows, Falco is involved in the mysterious death of a lion, an escaped leopard and a dead gladiator. There is much rivalry among the men who organise the vast games in Rome. It is a cut throat world where life is cheap and killing a man comes as second nature to many of the people involved in Falco's latest case.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not one of the best!
This particular adventure is about 200 pages too long, uneventful practially until the last few chapters where the author describes a gladatorial contest which is interesting from... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Karl Nicholson
Another classic Davis
This book flows along as all the previous Falco stories. The plotting is excellent and the research impeccable. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Diane Clifford
Probably the Best Yet
This is the tenth novel in the mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco, an informer and sleuth in Rome at the time of Vespasian. Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2008 by J. Chippindale
another brilliant read
This book had me in stitches as I once more enjoyed Falco's exploits. Ms. Davis dry wit, coupled with a detailed knowledge of Roman History engages the attention of all my family. Read more
Published on 14 Jun 2002
See crime in ancient Rome in a sparkling tale
A satirical romp through a murder mystery set in the Rome of AD73. Didius Falco is an undercover investigator who has to tackle gladiators, a crafty emperor, and vested interests... Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2002 by "oswald232"
Another neat work
Davis continues to go from strength to strength - her grasp of historical minutiae is unrivalled, her characterisation finer and finer as the series continues and the plots are... Read more
Published on 5 April 2000
Marcus Didius Falco does it again!
To get the worst out of the way first the only thing that wasn't quite right with this latest instalment of Marcus Didius Falco was the hero's current relationship with Petronius... Read more
Published on 28 Jun 1999
BUYING INFORMATION
Fans of Lindsey Davis (of which I'm certainly one) -- you can buy this book, as well as "One Virgin Too Many", from Amazon.co.uk. Read more
Published on 14 Jun 1999
A must for all Falco fans
Once again, Falco is off on another adventure, this time to North Africa, investigating tax fiddles. Read more
Published on 29 Mar 1999
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