Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
10 used & new from CDN$ 20.92

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Alexandria
 
See larger image
 

Alexandria (Paperback)

by Lindsey Davis (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
List Price: CDN$ 34.95
Price: CDN$ 22.02 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
You Save: CDN$ 12.93 (37%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Only 2 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

6 new from CDN$ 20.92 4 used from CDN$ 23.12

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Rebels and Traitors by Lindsey Davis

Alexandria + Rebels and Traitors
Price For Both: CDN$ 44.04

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: Alexandria by Lindsey Davis

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details

  • Rebels and Traitors by Lindsey Davis

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Persona Non Grata

Persona Non Grata

by Ruth Downie
CDN$ 18.90
Rebels and Traitors

Rebels and Traitors

by Lindsey Davis
CDN$ 22.02
Two For The Lions

Two For The Lions

by Lindsey Davis
SPQR XII: Oracle of the Dead: A Mystery

SPQR XII: Oracle of the Dead: A Mystery

by John Maddox Roberts
CDN$ 17.61
A Dying Light In Corduba

A Dying Light In Corduba

by Lindsey Davis
3.0 out of 5 stars (4)  CDN$ 10.79
Explore similar items

Product Details


Product Description

Product Description

The new Falco novel finds Lindsey Davis’s First Century detective Marcus Didius Falco and his partner Helena Justina investigating crime in the famous city of Alexandria.

For Marcus Didius Falco, agent to the Emperor Vespasian, Alexandria holds fascination and a hint of fear. Beautiful, historic and famously unruly, the great cosmopolitan city wears Roman rule lightly. While his wife, Helena Justina, wants to see the Lighthouse and the Pyramids, Falco has a mission at the Great Library that soon turns out to involve much more than stock-taking its innumerable scrolls.

A mysterious death in the library brings him into conflict with the darker side of academic life. With forensic science in its infancy, even an illegal autopsy fails to find real answers. To solve the crime for the Roman Prefect — if indeed it is a crime — Falco will have to draw on his own doggedness and intuition, at first supported only by Helena’s commonsense and the loyal backup of her brother Aulus, who goes undercover as a student among the in-fighting academics. The philosophers hunger after fame and fortune so ruthlessly there is soon another terrifying death, this time at the royal zoo.

It so happens that his Uncle Fulvius is living in Alexandria with his partner Cassius. Their involvement in local affairs already seems shady when they are joined by their crony, Falco’s father, Geminus, a man well-known for disreputable business practices. If the irrepressible Pa has had a hand in events at the library, Falco knows he stands no chance.


From the Hardcover edition.


About the Author

Lindsey Davis has written nineteen novels, beginning with The Course of Honour. She has won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the Dagger in the Library, and a Sherlock Award for Falco as Best Comic Detective.


From the Hardcover edition.

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.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?

Alexandria
78% buy the item featured on this page:
Alexandria 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
CDN$ 22.02
Venus in Copper
7% buy
Venus in Copper
CDN$ 16.02
See Delphi and Die
6% buy
See Delphi and Die 3.0 out of 5 stars (2)
CDN$ 10.79
Scandal Takes a Holiday
5% buy
Scandal Takes a Holiday
CDN$ 11.69

 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Buried in books, Jun 6 2009
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Alexandria (Hardcover)
The ancient city of Alexandria was known for two main things: the Lighthouse at Rhodes, and the vast Library (largest one of its kind in the ancient world).

So it's a pretty good bet that when Marcus Didius Falco takes a family vacation in Alexandria, dead bodies will crop up at one (or more!) famous locations. Lindsay Davis' ancient-Roman mystery series is still pretty fresh and enjoyable in the nineteenth volume, "Alexandria," especially with all the malevolence and skeletons in the world of ancient academe... although the literally red-hot climax ends up falling a bit flat.

Falco, a pregnant Helena Justina and their assorted kids arrive to stay with shady Uncle Fulvius and his life partner Cassius, who introduce them to the director of the Library, Theon.

Unfortunately, Theon is found dead in a locked room the day after Fulvius' dinner party -- and a necropsy (an autopsy with a cooler name) reveals that he had eaten oleander. Was it suicide, or murder? Falco begins investigating with the help of Helena and her brother Aulus, and discovers that for all its lofty goals and ideals, the Library's faculty is actually a hotbed of grudges, sexual competition, infighting and ambition. You know, normal.

As a shortlist of new candidates is produced, Falco tries to figure out who might have been desperate enough to kill Theon, and whether the proposed discarding of old manuscripts from the Library might be connected to it. Unfortunately, his investigations lead him to a showdown with a giant crocodile, a second murder and a deadly undercover mission at the Pharos Lighthouse. And the conspiracy at the Library may reach

Lindsay 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 transplanted to dusty, decorative Alexandria and its waning glory, and some barbed mockery of the Romans' attitudes toward the Egyptians and the city of Alexandria.

Along the way, there's plenty of tangled personal grudges and thwarted ambition among the various people working at the library, and a murky little conspiracy involving vanishing scrolls. Davis spices this up with some heart-pounding suspense (a massive wrestling match with Sobek) and some wicked humour (the snake that likes to stare up people's tunics). And she has a clever way of giving the characters perspectives that ancient people might have had -- such as "the Odyssey" being referred to as a bawdy adventure tale.

The biggest problem: it feels like Davis overreached herself slightly with all the suspects, with the result that Falco's dramatic unmasking of the bad guy is rather awkward (I half expected him to yell "IT WAS YOUUUUU!") and anticlimactic.

Despite that, Falco himself has aged remarkably well for a character in his nineteenth mystery -- mellow and loving to his family, prickly around his annoying relatives, hard-edged and keen-eyed when working as an informer. Helena Justina uses a solid mix of brains, charm and insight to get information Falco needs. There's also a colourful supporting cast -- oily little officials, womanizing zookeepers, surly astronomers, a snakey lawyer and a sexy mistress who's playing a dangerous game. Not to mention a new character who might come in handy in the next book.

"Alexandria" has a slightly flat grand finale, but the mystery itself is a winding, frequently deadly trip through an exotic ancient city. Definitely a good little read, especially for such a long-running series.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject




i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.