Author Residence: London, England Author Hometown: Birmingham, England
LINDSEY DAVIS has written nineteen novels, beginning with
The Course of Honour, the love story of the Emperor Vespasian and Antonia Caenis. Her bestselling mystery series features laid-back First Century detective Marcus Didius Falco and his partner Helena Justina, plus friends, relations, pets and bitter enemy the Chief Spy. Her books are translated into many languages and serialised on BBC Radio 4. Past Chair of the Crimewriters' Association and a Vice President of the Classical Association, she has won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the Dagger in the Library, and a Sherlock award for Falco as Best Comic Detective. She was born in Birmingham but now lives in London.
Here we have the fourteenth novel in a whodunit series starring Marcus Didius Falco, a Roman investigator of the first century A.D. This time, a visit to in-laws in the backwater of Londinium, Britannia, leads to murder, intrigue, and a diplomatic crisis. The humor marking the earlier Falco adventures seems muted here, possibly because narrator Christian Rodska ignores much of it. He reads accurately, if not with much variety, in a London accent and slightly strident timbre. Fortunately, his approach--not too light, not too heavy--lets much of the book's charm and color shine through. Y.R. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine