Lindsey Davis

The opening bow of Marcus Didus Falco is like a Chandlerest noir novel, with first person point of view, big corrupt city and this disenchanted, cynical PI who's at the wrong place at the right time.

Davis succeeds in creating a believable Rome set in Vespasian's time (70 AD) with it's corrupt politicians, corrupt army, corrupt police and public administration and makes it connect with our modern life. That's a tour de force.

Of course like any good noir novel, there is a damsel in distress show more that meets an horrible fate, there's the traitor, the amazing leading lady and all the fauna you are used to. Davis introduces two strong characters Falco and Helena Justina who's relationship molds and drives the series. You start reading the series because the plot and the set up is interesting and well done but you keep going back because of Falco's and Helena's love for each other, their family and friends show less

Informer Marcus Didius Falco has two commissions that take him east. The first comes from the emperor by way of Falco’s nemesis, Anacrites. Not wanting Helena Justina to know about the first commission, he accepts a second from Thalia. It seems that Thalia’s water organist ran off with a young man, and Thalia wants her back. The last news of her -came from the Decapolis. After a misadventure in Petra, Falco and Helena fall in with a group of traveling players headed for the Decapolis. show more Since there is strength in numbers, Falco and Helena join the troup, with Falco replacing the recently deceased playwright. Falco can look for the missing water organist as the group tours the Decapolis, and he can also look for the murderer who dispatched his much-disliked scriptwriting predecessor.

Although the plot has some deficiencies (including a dropped story line early on), I particularly enjoyed its setting. Petra is always fascinating, and the Decapolis is familiar to me from Sunday School since Jesus traveled there. It’s an unusual setting even for historical fiction, but it really worked for me. show less

I last read 'The Silver Pigs' thirty years ago. It was a revelation, a wonderful amalgam of historical fiction and murder mystery with just a touch of romance. I instantly became a fan and followed Falco all the way through to 'Nemesis' the twentieth Falco book, which I finished more than a decade ago.

I'd promised myself that I would get back to these books once I'd retired and had time on my hands. What I hadn't allowed for was that my eyesight would no longer be good enough to read all the show more Falco books on my shelves.

So I decided to work my way through the series using the audiobook versions.

I've had 'The Silver Pigs' audiobook on my shelves since 2015. I kept putting off reading it. I was afraid that I'd find that what had enchanted me thirty years ago would now feel dated and slow.

Instead, I found that the book still sparkles and that the thirty-year gap was long enough for enough details to fade from my memory that the story felt fresh and carried a few surprises.

'The Silver Pigs' has a solid plot that uncovers a political conspiracy that spans the Empire from the Forum in Rome to the silver mines in the Mendip hills of Britain. Even on a re-read, I was kept guessing about who had done what and how/if the bad guys would be brought to justice.

But it's not the plot that makes this book shine, it's the characters of Marcus Didius Falco, Private Informer and Helena Justina, a senator's daughter.

Falco is a poor son of Rome. Thirty years old and unmarried. A republican in a time of emperors. A former Legionnaire who served in Britain during the uprising. I loved his swagger, his cynicism his almost pathological defiance of authority and his self-deprecating humour. The story is told with dry humour by an older version of Falco, looking back, mostly tolerantly, at the events that shaped his adult life.

Helena Justina is a strong-willed, intelligent woman who has recently divorced her husband on the grounds of neglect. As a senator's daughter, she is two social classes higher than Falco. I loved that Helena Justina was more than a love interest for Falco. She is just as strong and as capable as he is. She knows her own mind and her decisions and actions drive a lot of the plot.

The most unexpected thing for me in this re-read was how hard I was hit by the description of Falco's term of (undercover) slavery in the silver mine. This was brutal and brought Falco to the edge of despair.

I listened to the audiobook version of 'The Silver Pigs' performed by Christian Rodska who captured Falco perfectly.

I've decided to continue re-reading Falco. I've started the second book, 'Shadows In Bronze' which, unfortunately, has a different narrator, Gordon Griffiths, who I'm still trying to get used to. He's good but his version of Falco sounds a little too officer class for my tastes. show less

I adore Davis' Falco series set in Vespasian's Rome, its one of my favorite historical mysteries and if there's a new one, I always read it. This book is Davis' take on Vespasian's career told through the eyes of Caenis, the slave and then freedwoman who he loved throughout his entire life. We follow everything through Caenis' eyes. She is a slave in the palace and then later for Antonia, so has a unique perspective on the Claudians. The romance between Vespasian and Caenis is subtly show more presented as their lives are complicated in terms of class, money and politics. Davis handles it all deftly as well as weaving through it a knowledge of yes, we all know how this ends but lets play in the details. Reading this made me want to go and reread and rewatch I, Claudius, which examines the same general area in time, a masterful historical novel. show less