Scandal Takes a Holiday

This is the first of these I have read for a while, but the quality hasn't deteriorated. They are action-packed and full of easy-going historicla detail, with pleasantly complex plots and, with a cocky first person narrative, lots of tongue-in-cheek humour. The over-arching plotline of the hero's dysfunctional family background is frequently hilarious and often endearing.

The upper class in Rome get their news from the Daily Gazette. It's mostly boring - events of the Emperor, some lies, but with a load of gossip. Except that gossip has gotten thin lately as the Diocles, the gossip writer, has taken an extended vacation. So extended, in fact, that his fellow writers hire Marcus Didius Falco to find him. Diocles said he was going to visit an aunt in Ostia, but he never returned - and the only thing he leaves behind him are some personal effects and a trail of several odd clues.

Falco’s investigation takes him to the coastal town of Ostia, some twenty miles from Rome. He moves his whole family into a small apartment - partner and colleague, Helena, their two young daughters, and a foster child Albia who takes care of the babies. While trying to solve the case, Falco has to deal with his often fractious young children, his wife, Albia (an orphan who is settling into their family after being brought back from Briton after their last adventures), his wife's family, and his own eccentric relatives. As usual, his family proves more troublesome - and maybe more dangerous - than the criminals he encounters.

Of course, with Falco, nothing is ever as simple as it initially appears, and quite soon he finds himself up to his neck in various nefarious doings. While pursuing leads on the scribe's whereabouts, Falco discovers that one of the last people to see Diocles is a reclusive old sea merchant. Despite rumours to the contrary, he claims to have never been a pirate ... piracy being one of the things that, officially, no longer exists. The pirates seem to have some sort of kidnapping scam going in the region, so Falco assists the vigiles (and his old friend Petronius) to round up those gangs. Along the way, he meets an uncle who is never spoken about by the rest of the family, and also learns some very interesting things about his dodgy father.

This is I think the sixteenth book in the series – and they never pall. Lindsey Davis makes the reader feel as if they have landed back to Ancient Rome because her descriptions of day to day living are so vivid and visual. The ancient port city is so vividly described that you can smell the salt air and hear the gulls cry. Falco is one of my all-time favourite detectives – and this adventure reveals a lot more about all the old crew. ( )

Falco is hired to investigate the disappearance of the gossip columnist for the Acta Diurna in Ostia. Two sometimes rival, sometimes allied gangs of pirates and Falco's Uncle Fulvius (the one nobody ever talks about) get involved.

More information about Falco's peculiar extended family is always good for a laugh, and the pirate's funeral was hilarious. I did feel though that Falco's rescue from certain death out at sea strained credulity. ( )

I adore Falco, but this one is not my favorite. As ever, it is amusing, and the reader learns things that he or she (probably) didn't know. In this novel, however, the plot kept slipping away from me, as characters appeared and disappeared at the speed of -- boiling asparagus. ( )

A very enjoyable romp through Ostia, the port of Rome, as Falco searches for the missing gossip columnist for the Roman daily newspaper. Throw in a few dodgy pirates, and anything might happen! ( )