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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In Davis's engaging 17th ancient Roman historical to feature "informer" Marcus Didius Falco (after 2004's Scandal Takes a Holiday), Falco takes his deductive powers to Greece, where two young women tourists have died under mysterious circumstances. Accompanied by a large entourage, including his independent and sharp-witted wife, Helena, Falco soon finds that one tour, promoted by the shady Seven Sights Travel outfit, has a suspiciously high mortality rate. The long trail of corpses Falco uncovers puts the sleuth in danger of running out of suspects. While the way Falco unmasks the killer may be less than ingenious, the author's vivid picture of life in A.D. 76 and the sparkling characterizations, particularly the amusing byplay between Falco and Helena, will satisfy most readers. For those new to this popular series, which has a new publisher, Davis provides a short introduction to Falco and his world. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* If Sam Spade traveled back in time to A.D. 76, he'd be Marcus Didius Falco, the Roman sleuth at the center of Davis' mordant series. In the seventeenth outing, Marcus, who tackles crime on behalf of the emperor (and with the help of his tart-tongued wife, Helena), casts his cynical gaze on the case of two women who met their demise on tours of Olympia, Greece. Both women perished during excursions sponsored by Seven Sights, a dubious travel agency whose slippery host dispenses a litany of lies. Marcus focuses on the more recent victim, Valeria Ventidia, who was found beaten to death with a long-jumper's hand weight. Although there's no shortage of suspects among Seven Sights' colorful clientele, Valeria's shifty, jealous husband is at the top of the list. Davis provides vibrant period detail, from majestic Greek temples and teeming Roman slums to reprehensible rulers sporting tunics trimmed with gold. Some readers of this series may have difficulty accepting the hard-boiled veneer that Davis lays over ancient Rome, but for those willing to suspend disbelief, it makes a marvelous conceit. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quirky, witty and funny,
By Villia (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: See Delphi and Die (Mass Market Paperback)
This newest Falco book is part of a very amusing and very quirky series. These books are written with a great deal of humor, the patrician Helena and the very plebeian Falco are the best sleuthing couple going today. Rome and the period of Vespasian come alive and romp on the page.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful as Always (5 stars. I can't fix the above),
By
This review is from: See Delphi and Die (Hardcover)
If you like your historical mysteries a little more - or more than a little - on the zany side, you must have met Falco already. He's like Steven Saylor's Geordinius the Finder, but without the grimness. The books have a lively, light touch; and if you don't expect accuracy to the weight tomes of Roman History, you'll enjoy them immensely.This novel is true to form. A girl dies on a packaged holiday to Greece. The tour organizers say "Not our responsibility. She went off with a man after dark". The distraught father seeks Falco's help because he's angry at being brushed off. No one but him has been searching for his daughter's killer. Falco looks into the case because he's a soft hearted guy and the girl is entitled to have Roman justice do its stuff on her behalf. He starts to investigate the tour company, and discovers that the marriage of a honeymoon couple on a current tour to Greece has ended the hard way. The bride is dead and the groom is missing. He discovers that the investigations of both deaths were glossed over. Are the Roman officials in Greece covering up because publicizing the deaths as murders will scare off tourists from attending the Olympic Games? Will getting involved kill his prospects of rising in society so he can marry his patrician girlfriend? Cheesed off at all the callousness and inaction, Falco and Helena (and nephews and friends)take a trip to stalk a killer who keeps his murders in the open but himself (or herself?) out of sight.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews) 44 of 47 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
There is a reason why Ms. Davis has won so many awards.,
By S. Schwartz "romonko" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: See Delphi and Die (Hardcover)
Her books are funny and her characters are like old friends. It's hard to believe that the time these books are set in is around 75 AD. Her characters are Roman, and they travel around the world. Not only do we get a history lesson, but we also have a travelogue for Europe in this time. In this book, Falco and his wonderful wife Helena (as well as a few other hangers-on) travel to Greece to solve a mystery. Greece is the home of the Olympic Games and we learn quite about these very early games from the narrative in the book. Falco is on one of his most puzzling cases ever. He has to separate the natural deaths and accidents from the murders. He manages to straighten this out, but he still has no proof to charge his main suspect with the murders of a young married couple on holiday with Seven Sights Tourist company. We have the privilege of following Falco through the Greecian countryside as he tracks his killer. I highly recommend this series, and suggest that it be read in order. This is the eighteenth book in the series, so you'll have a wonderful reading journey to get through. Be prepared to laugh out loud many times as Ms. Davis' humour runs rampant through each book.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The best Falco in many years,
By Mike Garrison - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: See Delphi and Die (Mass Market Paperback)
Falco always was at his best when traveling about, grouching about how the locals aren't up to Roman standards while admitting to himself that the Romans aren't really up to Roman standards either. This book probably also isn't up to Roman standards, but fortunately for us, it is up to Falco standards. That's good enough for me.Falco and Helena (and Albia and Nux but not the children) are on a trip to Greece. A couple of young Roman women have died under mysterious circumstances while touring with Seven Sights, the shadiest operators you would ever want to meet. Somehow Aulus has become involved, so Helena's mother wants Falco to take care of things. Everyone on the tour is a suspect. So much for the plot -- it's not bad but it's definitely not the high point of the book. The puppet strings are just a little bit too visible. The mystery is not compelling but neither is it completely pro forma. All the evidence is hidden in plain sight, and it was possible for the reader to figure it all out just about the same time that Falco did. However, the cynical Falco dialogue is sparkling, and the characterization of Falco and Helena and their party is first rate. Davis seems to have found her voice again with the new, respectable Falco after struggling for several books while he made the transition into the landed gentry. "Like most students, he was not at all surprised to find six people, some of whom he had never met before, fast asleep in his room. After the briefest of pauses, Gaius feigned an apology: 'Any friend of Uncle Marcus is ... an idiot.'" The book is full of details about the grimy and sometimes slimy side of tourism, particularly tourism in a legendary but now backwater place like Roman-era Greece. The investigation starts in Olympia, moves to Corinth, then to Delphi, and finally to Athens. Along the way Davis plays tour guide, even as she lampoons the actual tour guides Falco et al. encounter. Even better, the book is full of odd and offbeat characters, the kind that always made the older Falco books so amusing. From Olympic champions to incompetent poets to drunken philosophers and back to bemused Romans, Falco and the reader are treated to a menagery of funny, strange, annoying, but nevertheless real people. There is none of the grim desperation that some of the darker books have had, even though there are a few tense and scary moments. Instead we see Falco moving into a successful life as a mostly respectable upper middle class family man. He still has his Aventine roots intact, but he is finally comfortable with branching out from them. After 16 previous books it is a little too much to ask for this one to be the best yet, but it's certainly in the top half. 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Falco: A Series to Love,
By T. Ritter - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: See Delphi and Die (Hardcover)
This is the 17th (!) book in the amazing series about Didius Falco, an "informer" and sometime imperial agent in Rome circa 76AD. As usual, much of the book involves interactions between Falco, his wife, family and friends in the context of imperial Rome. This time we travel through various towns in Greece investigating two murders on two different foreign tours booked from Rome.Each book can be read separately from the rest of the series, but ideally the reader will start at the beginning, Silver Pigs. It is important to not miss Two for the Lions, which resolves threads from earlier volumes. The Silver Pigs (1989) Shadows in Bronze (1990) Venus in Copper (1991) The Iron Hand of Mars (1992) Poseidon's Gold (1993) Last Act in Palmyra (1994) Time to Depart (1995) A Dying Light in Corduba (1996) Three Hands in the Fountain (1997) Two for the Lions (1998) One Virgin Too Many (1999) Ode to a Banker (2000) A Body in the Bath House (2001) The Jupiter Myth (2002) The Accusers (2003) Scandal Takes a Holiday (2004) See Delphi and Die (2005) Saturnalia (2007) [...] |
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