by Lindsey Davis
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by Lindsey Davis
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by Lindsey Davis
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by Lindsey Davis
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by Lindsey Davis
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Review
In the Britain of AD70 (a province of Rome) someone is pilfering silver ingots ('pigs') and Marcus Didius Falco, ex-private eye, ex-army 'scout', is sent from Rome to sort the British out. He does, and in appreciation Emperor Vespasian offers him a permanent job - with prospects - as imperial informer. Badly needing a job 'with prospects' (having met in Britian a girl beyond his social reach) Falco accepts, sparking off not just a one-off novel but a whole series (eleven to date) set in ancient Rome and its provinces, which combine history, hilarity, hazardous adventure and romance - based on serious, professional 1st-century research. Don't miss. (Kirkus UK)
Davis' first novel tells the familiar story of a hard-boiled detective whose rescue of a young gift on the run gets him involved in murder, theft, corruption, and an attempt to bring down the government. The twist is that the loquacious, indomitable detective is the informer Marcus Didius Falco, and the government the Roman Empire under Vespasian. Falco's client, Sosia Camillina, 16-year-old daughter of wealthy tradesman Publius Camillus Meto and niece of senator Decimus Camillus Verus, tells him that her uncle is hiding something in her bank box, something that turns out to be a silver pig - a 200-pound lead ingot filled with silver ore from Britain. Uncle Decimus claims that the pig is part of the evidence of a steady theft of silver from the mines in Britain, a theft on so large a scale that it endangers the financial health of the empire; and when Sosia Camillina gets on the trail of the conspirators in theft, one of them kills her. Vowing to avenge her death, Falco allows himself to be shipped off to primitive Britain to work as an undercover agent in the silver mines; and although we never get to see him doing any actual detecting, he unearths a widespread conspiracy involving both the Camillus brothers and the ruling family before falling in love with the senator's willful daughter Helena - a divorcee whose ex-husband will be a crucial piece of the puzzle while he is returning as her escort to Rome, where more adventures and revelations lead to a suspiciously anachronistic showdown. More historical romance than mystery, since the detective plot is largely sunk under the weight of vigorously deployed period detail. But Falco and Helena make so strong an impression that a series seems assured. (Kirkus Reviews)
Davis' first novel tells the familiar story of a hard-boiled detective whose rescue of a young gift on the run gets him involved in murder, theft, corruption, and an attempt to bring down the government. The twist is that the loquacious, indomitable detective is the informer Marcus Didius Falco, and the government the Roman Empire under Vespasian. Falco's client, Sosia Camillina, 16-year-old daughter of wealthy tradesman Publius Camillus Meto and niece of senator Decimus Camillus Verus, tells him that her uncle is hiding something in her bank box, something that turns out to be a silver pig - a 200-pound lead ingot filled with silver ore from Britain. Uncle Decimus claims that the pig is part of the evidence of a steady theft of silver from the mines in Britain, a theft on so large a scale that it endangers the financial health of the empire; and when Sosia Camillina gets on the trail of the conspirators in theft, one of them kills her. Vowing to avenge her death, Falco allows himself to be shipped off to primitive Britain to work as an undercover agent in the silver mines; and although we never get to see him doing any actual detecting, he unearths a widespread conspiracy involving both the Camillus brothers and the ruling family before falling in love with the senator's willful daughter Helena - a divorcee whose ex-husband will be a crucial piece of the puzzle while he is returning as her escort to Rome, where more adventures and revelations lead to a suspiciously anachronistic showdown. More historical romance than mystery, since the detective plot is largely sunk under the weight of vigorously deployed period detail. But Falco and Helena make so strong an impression that a series seems assured. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
Set in the Roman Empire in AD 70, this book tells about Marcus Didius Falco, a deadbeat, low-life informer whose normal working day consists of spying on adulterous husbands for jealous wives. An unlikely hero to discover a ring of conspirators hellbent on destroying the status quo.
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87% buy the item featured on this page: The Silver Pigs |
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4% buy Shadows in Bronze (Falco 02) £5.96 |
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4% buy Venus in Copper (Falco 03) £4.98 |
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2% buy The Iron Hand of Mars (Falco 04) £4.96 |
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