Nemesis [Hardcover]

Number twenty in this series of excellent detective stories set in Vespasian's Roman Empire and featuring the informer Marcus Didius Falco begins with a terrible family tragedy for Falco.

Nemesis was the Roman Goddess of retributive justice: one of the characters in this story says that "when a man receives more from Fortune than he should, Nemesis will come along and right the balance."

The book contains Lindsey Davis's usual mix of ironic humour about human relationships, nuggets of information about the society and politics of first century Rome, and an intriguing detective story. But although the style and content is fairly similar to the first nineteen books in the series, the tone of this latest volume is much darker.

The full Falco series, in chronological order, consists at the moment of:

1) The Silver Pigs
2) Shadows in Bronze
3) Venus in Copper
4) The Iron Hand of Mars
5) Poseidon's Gold
6) Last Act in Palmyra
7) Time to Depart
8) A Dying Light in Corduba
9) Three Hands in the Fountain
10) Two for the Lions
11) One Virgin Too Many
12) Ode to a Banker
13) A Body in the Bath house
14) The Jupiter Myth
15) The Accusers
16) Scandal taks a Holiday
17) See Delphi and Die
18) Saturnalia
19) Alexandria
20) Nemesis

This book is set in Summer AD77, during the period when the Flavian dynasty, e.g. the Emperor Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian, were building the huge stadium known to historians as the Flavian Amphitheatre and to most of the rest of us as the Coliseum.

Picking up the pieces after the double tragedy which strikes Falco on the first day of the story, he learns that his father Geminus had won a contract from the Flavians to provide a large number of statues for the alcoves in the Coliseum. One supplier, Modestus, from whom Geminus had bought some of these statues cannot be paid because he, his wife, and the slaves in his household have all disappeared. So Falco travels to Modestus's home near Antium to investigate.

He learns Modestus had last been seen when heading into the Pontine Marshes to talk to a notorious family called the Claudii about a boundary dispute. And his wife had last been seen when she went to find why Modestus had not returned. Local people, when persuaded with difficulty to talk, are convinced that the Claudii had murdered Modestus, his wife, and many other people, but that nothing will be done because the Claudii had friends at the imperial court.

Falco and his friend Petro start to investigate, and it soon becomes clear that there is indeed a serial killer at work in the Pontine Marshes. Is it the Claudii? If so, is someone at the Imperial court protecting them, and why? Will Falco and Petro have to take the law into their own hands - or could this case be their own nemesis?

I agree with previous reviewer about this story being the darkest in the series. This is not because the witty banter, cynical humour or any of the other normal elements are missing: they are all still there and one or two of the jokes are quite funny. Nor is this story darker than the previous ones just because innocent people get murdered, although they do: that happened in previous books. A delightful girl in her early teens was murdered in the first few pages of the first Falco book, for instance.

Part of the reason that this book comes over darker in tone is that it dwells a bit more than usual on the consequences of evil behaviour for the victims. One passage in the book reminded me in the most depressing way of real-life accounts of violence against women, such as the columns police doctor Theodore Dalrymple used to write in the Spectator magazine, describing conversations with women who will neither leave or bring charges against the abusive partners who keep putting them in hospital.

But the main reason this story is so dark lies the impact of the evil they are trying to eradicate on Falco and Petro themselves.

One bit of series trivia: most of the novels in this series read as if they were being told in a chatty style shortly after the events described. However, "Nemesis" is the second Falco book (the other being "Ode to a Banker") which contains oblique references to events after the conclusion of the book. "Ode to a Banker" explicitly states that the story of the book is being told twenty years later in about 94AD and one or two references in "Nemesis" appear to hint that this book too is being narrated at about that time.

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 77 AD.

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.

Family has always been a big problem in Lindsay Davis' books -- family will get you into trouble, but you help them even if they make your skin crawl. And in Davis' twentieth ancient Roman murder-mystery, family trouble catapults our favorite Roman informer into even more trouble in the less pleasant, healthy parts of Rome -- and the big problem is the sudden "dark" actions he takes. See below for spoileriffic details.

Death has visited Falco's family: his son dies just after birth, and on the same day he learns that his father has just died. Unsurprisingly, his dad left Falco the bulk of his considerable estate and his sleazy business -- and an ex-lover, Thalia, who claims to be pregnant with his baby (which, if it's male, will halve his inheritance). To make matters worse, Helena's brother returns home, newly married to a grasping Athenian woman.

It makes most families look positively peaceful, doesn't it? And that's before the MURDERS start.

While dealing with dear dad's estate, Falco discovers that the Pontine Marshes are not just yucky, but deadly -- citizens are vanishing and being found dead in Rome. Apparently it's connected to the Claudii, a strange family said to have imperial protection. As more bodies pop up in Rome, Falco and Petronius must unearth a nasty collection of facts -- which may be connected to someone they know.

Lindsey Davis has a rare writing knack -- she can write historical mysteries without spending the whole book constantly going, "Look at all my cool research! Check out all the uninteresting details I dug up to give the book an authentic feel!" as many such writers do. It's full of the flavour of ancient Rome -- the flies, the squalor, the sweat, and the faint scent of corruption when a great civilization goes downhill.

And as you'd expect from a book named after the goddess of divine retribution, there's a dark edge to this story -- sudden deaths, inheritance, plague-swamps and a mysterious half-hidden family. While Davis still weaves in some funny moments ("If this is the same ox, he's a sex maniac. I'm not driving him!"), "Nemesis" is undoubtedly a darker, grimmer story than the ones before it.

The big problem is the characterization. For the first two-thirds of the book, Davis smoothly explores Falco and Helena's shared grief, gentle humor and their fierce mutual love for their family -- especially since Anacrites is sniffing around Albia, and Albia is having a meltdown because of her crush getting married.

Then, without warning, Falco tortures a man, and it puts a nasty strain on his marriage. It feels like Davis made a stab at making things "darker" -- but it doesn't feel consistent for a man who always had such principles, and he doesn't seem in any way bothered by it. Fortunately, that part ends soon and everything shifts back to normal.

Winged "Nemesis" attacks the people around Falco in Lindsey Davis' twentieth novel. It's well-written, nicely dark and witty, but the "torture" part temporarily derails both Falco and the story.

In AD 77 on a hot summer day in Rome, informer Marcus Didius Falco has twin tragedies strike him almost simultaneously. His newborn son dies just hours after being born and when he took his baby to be buried on his father's property, he learns his dad died also. As the heir Marcus must make quick business decisions. Marcus has a contract to deliver over a hundred statues to the amphitheater, but when he arrives to pay his father's supplier for them and pick them up, Julius Modestus and his wife Livia Primilla are nowhere to be found.

The nephew of the missing couple takes remittance for the statues. He also informs Marcus that his Uncle Julius complained about Nobilis of the Claudii family who reside in the desolate Pontine Marshes. Marcus soon learns that the mutilated body of Modesto has been found. Falco and his friend vigiles Petronius investigate. They visit the Pontine Marshes and see how trashy the Claudii live and how everyone in a miles wide radius fears them. As they make progress on the case, their enemy Chief Spy Anacrites takes over the inquiry. Falco realizes someone high up in the government is protecting the Claudii so he and his partner continue their probe.

Falco is home after a best selling trip to Alexandria; once again Lindsey Davis brings to life Rome mostly through the eyes of the informer. As a sort of anti-hero, Falco gets his hands dirty while seeking justice for his late father's deceased supplier though the inquiry enables him to put his grief as the sandwich generation mourning two deaths on hold. The rest of the cast is strong especially the protagonist's partner, the first century bureaucrat Anacrites and the squalid living Claudii who ironically have high level protection. This is a terrific Ancient Rome whodunit with surprising twists and Falco running from his grief.

Harriet Klausner

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