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A Body in the Bath House
 
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A Body in the Bath House (Hardcover)

by Lindsey Davis (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 324 pages
  • Publisher: Century (1 Jun 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 071268039X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0712680394
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 652,841 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #66 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > D > Davis, Lindsey

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's a close-run thing. Two authors have made a speciality of brilliantly researched and highly atmospheric thrillers set in ancient Rome. Lindsey Davis is currently ahead on points, and the latest Falco thriller, A Body in the Bath House, is quite the most diverting entry in the series yet. Steven Saylor's Gordianus the Finder series will have to scrabble to maintain this level. The highly impressive sleight-of-hand that Davis is so adept at is just as much in evidence here as in such previous entries in the series as Ode to a Banker: while the sights, sound and smells of ancient Rome are conjured up with a truly pungent verisimilitude, Falco's modern sensibility never jars, and this Philip Marlowe of the ancient world remains a perfect conduit for the reader.

Cleverly extrapolating current fads, Davis demonstrates that even in AD 75 a passion for home improvement has gripped the Roman Empire. Falco is losing patience dealing with two cowboy builders who have been wreaking havoc on his bath house, but after the contract is finished, Falco and his father investigate hideous smells and find grisly human remains on the site. Simultaneously, in the primitive outpost of the Empire that is Britain, King Togidubnus is creating a spectacular new palace, but murderous accidents and corruption are bedevilling the project. Rome's Emperor Vespasian sends Falco to sort out the trouble, and this gives Falco a chance to escape from his dangerous feud with a Roman spy. Needless to say, as he penetrates to the heart of the mystery in Britain, his own life is (as usual) soon on the line with an implacable killer on his trail.

One would have thought that the law of diminishing returns would have kicked in by now, but this series goes from strength to strength. Taking up a Falco novel is an entrée into a world that is always colourful, always fascinating and always dangerous. --Barry Forshaw

Review
Praise for the 12th Falco novel, "Ode to a Banker:
"A witty satire of publishing and banking with striking contemporary resonance...hot, noisy smelly and full of unforgettable characters." -"Guardian

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
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 (6)
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 (4)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A return to the excellent standard of her first books., 22 Aug 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: A Body in the Bath House (Paperback)
I have read all of Lindesy Davis' books, and while I thought the early ones were genuinely entertaining, well researched and engrossing (detailed plot-lines and characters that are really appealing), I did find the 3 prior to "Body in the Bathhouse" disappointing. The charm and energy of the earlier ones was not there, and instead there was a feeling that she was almost going through the motions. Over-complicated plot, Falco and Helena's affair verging on the staid and uninteresting... This book, however, gripped me from the start. The characters are as believable (and incredible!) as ever, and taking the story to Britain works. Helena's brothers are in the limelight (the reader is,as usual, ready to kill Aelianus) and corruption flourishes. I can thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed "The Silver Pigs".
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Roman cowboys, British savages and a dodgy building site, 1 Jul 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: A Body in the Bath House (Paperback)
Perhaps not the best of the Falco stories, but one in which the characters come more and more alive. Petro, despite only appearing for a few pages, is more appealing than ever, and the will-he-won't-he story with Maia is just one of many captivating sidelines to the main story. What starts out as a simple body in the bath house becomes much more when Falco makes his way to Britain to investigate wrongdoings at Fishbourne Palace. As ever, meticulously researched with locations that really bring the period to life. At the centre of it all, Falco and Helena always trying to make sense of everything around them. OK, so maybe not the best, but I still had to read it all in one sitting. Highly recommended. I only hope that one day Anacrites really gets what's coming to him.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars not Falco's best, 16 May 2006
By Roman Clodia (London) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: A Body in the Bath House (Paperback)
I have mixed feelings about the Falco series: the mix of modernisms often jars and I'm not sure I like the whole attitude of 'the Romans were just like us after all' which underpins the books. Having said that I have enjoyed some of the earlier ones (Silver Pigs, Shadows in Bronze) but I didn't bother to finish this one as it just meandered around without ever getting to a plot. The humour seemed pretty forced to me, since Falco and Helena are comfortably married there's no tension in their relationship, and I couldn't be bothered with all the details of a Romans-in-Britain building site.
If you haven't read a Davis book before then definitely don't start here, try the Silver Pigs instead which was her first book and has far more energy than this rather limp offering.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars All action Falco serves up blood and justice
This was my initiation into the Roman world of informer Marcus Didius Falco, a first-century detective whose employer is the Emperor Vespasian. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mick Read

4.0 out of 5 stars Falco 13: and it's back to the Jupiter-forsaken British Isles ...

This is lucky thirteen in a series of excellent detective stories set in Vespasian's Roman Empire and featuring the informer Marcus Didius Falco. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Marshall Lord

5.0 out of 5 stars Falco
I have read all of the Falco novels several times over. I love them! It is like visiting with an amusing friend who always makes me feel happier for the meeting. Read more
Published 17 months ago by D. Hughes

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Ancient Detective?
I picked this up in my local library and read it with little expectation. I've read several "ancient detective" books including "Pompeii" by Robert Harris and a few of the... Read more
Published on 26 Jun 2007 by Iphidaimos

5.0 out of 5 stars Falco takes a Holiday
This is the twelfth novel in the mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco, an informer and sleuth in Rome at the time of Vespasian. Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2006 by J. Chippindale

1.0 out of 5 stars Roman mystery,history or humour?
This was the first Falco book I had read and it will be the last. It's clearly a style and genre you either love or hate. Read more
Published on 9 May 2006 by Mary Queen

3.0 out of 5 stars Disinclined to DIY...
...maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it quite so much. The writing is still gripping, the research still fantastic, the humour still funny, but for some reason this doesn't seem to... Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2004 by Crazy Eddie

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as previous novels in the series
I had been waiting for the next Falco book for what seemed ages, but although I enjoyed The Body in the Bath House, for me it didn't really come to up the author's previous high... Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Falco is maturing along with his family.
One of tht best things about the series is seeing Falco mature, along with his impossible family. This latest from Lindsey Davis not only tells a cracking story, it opens new and... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2001

3.0 out of 5 stars More of the same from Lindsey Davis
Hmmm, what can i say? More of the same from Lidsey Davis; if you liked the previous books in the series then you'll almost certainly like this one. Read more
Published on 1 Jul 2001

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