Lindsey Davis writes mysteries set in first century Rome. I read several a few years ago and was entranced with the sights, smells, and sounds of the ancient city. Between her research and imagination and descriptive skills, Davis almost lets you know what it was like to walk up the Aventine in the mid-August heat of the year 74.
| Davis continues her adventures of Marcus Didius Falco and his clan in Ode to a Banker. I found this book on the remainder pile at Barnes and Noble. Cheap and worth the price. While Davis continues to dream up complex mysteries with large casts and play very well to her descriptive skills, I'd forgotten how much she emphasizes them. If Nevada Barr approaches going over the top in desperate action, Davis sometimes seems to be writing a travelogue. There's only so much Roman sweat and soup shop aromas I want to read about. I do want to read a story and have it progress at least as fast as the hero gets to the Forum Romanum. In the end, the story gets resolved in traditional British fashion (Davis is a former British bureaucrat): assembling all the characters in a room and having Falco perform as ringmaster to revelation and confession. So much for action. I ambled through the leisurely pace of the story and tried to picture the scenes Davis painted, but the plot moved even more slowly than my reading. Maybe it wasn't worth the price -- for me. |
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By Ken Wedding. 08.19.02 Updated 08.16.04.
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