|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Ave Marcus Didius Falco! Once again Imperial Rome's wisecracking private investigator splendidly incarnates his time and placeas he uncovers a real estate development scam that proves the slum landlord is a long-established species. Fans of Silver Pigs and Shadows in Bronze will happily find Falco still sparring and making up with Helena Justina, the divorced daughter of a senator, carousing with his friend Petronius, captain of the Aventine Watch, obstructing his arch-enemy Anacrites, the Emperor Vespasian's chief spy, and trying to keep his mother and sisters at a comfortable distance. Here Falco is hired by two of the Hortensii, a group of freed slaves who have parlayed the legacy of their former owner into a fortune (which they display to vulgar excess), to investigate the thrice-widowed fiancee of one of their members. While Falco tries to prove that Severina Zotica has murdered her previous husbands, her betrothed is poisoned at a dinner with a notoriously unscrupulous developer and the detective must dig for other motives. Arson, evictions, skyrocketing rents, layered mortgage deals, another murder, near death for Helena and a brutal beating for himself spur Falco to ferret out the truth about the Hortensii and Severina. Period details, humor and Falco's modern sensibility add up to another sterling performance from Davis.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-- This is Davis's third historical mystery featuring the roguish gumshoe Marcius Didius Falco. Relatives of Hortensius, a wealthy Roman, hire Falco to check into the background of his betrothed, whose previous three husbands died under mysterious circumstances. When Hortensius is poisoned, his apparently bereaved widow hires Falco to find his killer. The body count mounts as Falco is caught up in a complex political web. Intriguing characters abound in this skillfully written, Chandleresque mystery that gives readers a peek at the seamy side of life in first-century Rome. Davis's fans will not be disappointed.
- John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.ca
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Wit--Great History!, Aug 24 2002
By Jenny Hanniver "medieval_student" - Published on Amazon.com
I'd give this novel a 4.5 if I could. It isn't the top of the line as Falco stories go, but it's so far superior to most other historical mysteries that I hated to rate it less than 5. This is the novel that contains Davis's most waggish bit of BRITISH fun, on page 135 (paperback version):"It was a hundred years since Rome decided to civilize the Gauls;. . . I am prepared to concede that one day the three cold Gallic provinces will come up with a contribution to the civilised arts--but nobody is going to convince me that it will be mastery of cuisine."
My best friend, married to a Frenchman who is an excellent home-kitchen chef, fell off her chair at that one, as I had done when I read it a few years earlier! And that's just one sample of Davis's mordant sense of "tweak."
I demand to know why this book is out of print!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well plotted historical mystery with meaty characters..., May 29 1996
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
I have read all of the Marcus Didius Falco mysteries andVenus In Copper is my favorite. Ancient Roman life is
weaved around the characters delightfully giving a
fine historical milieu. Falco is a salt-of-the-earth
type of character with honour and nobility yet a
certain baseness that we can all relate to. The
characters are well thought out, the prose is witty,
and the premise is interesting. The femme fatale quality
of this book reminds one of Chandler.
Highly Recommended!!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Snakes Alive, Sep 25 2006
By J. Chippindale - Published on Amazon.com
This is the third novel in the mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco, an informer and sleuth. 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 Rome in AD70, but to have a lead character who has the vocabulary of a present day New York cop. In this the third novel Falco is starting to feel like an old friend.Falco is trying to live down the indignity of being released from jail with the help of his mother of all people and he has accepted a case from some rich private clients. He is also in the middle of trying to entice his girlfriend Helena Justina to come and live with him, though why a senator's daughter, especially one who has just lost their baby, would wish to live in the hovel he calls home is anybody's guess.
When the client Falco is supposedly protecting dies, he is immediately re-hired by none other than the chief suspect. The crux of the matter is that Falco must find and expose a woman, a fortune hunter, who has lost more husbands to accidents than it can be believed possible.
Falco has more than a little excitement during the investigation, including a brush with a female contortionist who has a very interesting snake act. He also has the tremendous honour, or otherwise of a "friendly" visit from Titus Caesar himself, right in the middle of Falco attempting to cook a huge turbot without the aid of every chef's must have, a fish kettle.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
