The Graveyard of the Hesperides by Lindsey Davis

The Graveyard of the Hesperides: A Flavia Albia Novel by Lindsey Davis --- 325 pages

The fourth book in Davis' new series featuring Flavia Albia, the adopted daughter of private informer Marcus Didias Falco (the star of Davis' previous and very popular 20-volume series). 

Albia has been making her own way in the world, since the death of her first husband, as a private informer like her adopted father, Falco.  It's a precarious occupation for a man in 1st century Rome under the Flavian emperors, and even more precarious for a woman, but Albia is resourceful and determined to succeed. In the course of her work, over the three previous novels, she has become acquainted with the plebian aedile or magistrate, Tiberius Manlius Faustus, who has retained her to assist him in his investigative duties. Professional respect develops, over time, into a warmer personal regard, and Manlius has moved into Albia's apartment and into her heart. 

Now he wants a formal wedding ceremony to make their commitment public and official. Unnecessary says Albia, but she capitulates, since it means so much to Manlius, although she leaves all the arrangements to him. Manlius promptly enlists the assistance of Albia's younger sisters.  

To be fair, both Albia and Manlius have other things on their minds right now: Manlius has just taken over a construction company and is in the middle of renovating a seedy old bar, the Garden of the Hesperides, for its new owner. Then the construction crew unearths a jumble of human bones on the site, and work screeches to a halt. Manlius, as a magistrate, must pursue justice for the unknown victim. Albia is his investigator. She quickly learns of a longstanding rumor in the district that the previous owner of the Garden of the Hesperides (now dead) murdered a popular waitress, Rufia, and buried her in the courtyard of the bar to cover up his crime.  

Albia presumes that the bones are those of the long-missing Rufia, but further grim discoveries at the Garden of the Hesperides soon suggest there is much more to this tale than the neighbors are telling. 

This is really one of Davis' best efforts yet. Albia's wedding is a comedy of well-meant errors, contrasted with her persistence in unraveling a vicious crime.  And then there is the incredible pleasure of following  Albia as she navigates the streets and alleys of 1st century Rome during the reign of Domitian, allowing us to experience the daily life of ordinary people with a visceral immediacy. 

While it's not necessary to read the Falco series or the previous three Flavia Albia books (Ides of April, Enemies at Home, and Deadly Election) to enjoy this book, if you do enjoy it, I urge you to hunt up Davis' backlist. You will not be sorry!

Click HERE to read the review from the Historical Novel Society web site.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus; and HERE for the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE for the review from the For Winter Nights blog.

Deadly Election: A Flavia Albia Mystery by Lindsey Davis --- 309 pages

The third volume in Davis's new series about Flavia Albia, the (adopted) daughter of Marcus Didius Falco and Helena Justina.

Domitian is Emperor and Marcus Didius Falco has retired to his house on the coast, keeping a discreet distance from the imperial intrigues in Rome. But Flavia Albia, his stubbornly independent adopted daughter, is set on pursuing Falco's former profession as a private informer in Rome.

Still recovering from a serious illness, Albia returns to the oppressive heat of the city in summer to find the employees left in charge of the family auction house have discovered a corpse stuffed inside a large chest, part of a consignment of household goods to be auctioned. Albia, as the only member of the family in Rome, must take charge. The sensible thing to do would be to dump the corpse; Albia of course, wants to know who he is, how he died, and why his body wound up in the chest.

Meanwhile, Albia's friend and sometime collaborator, the magistrate Tiberius Manlius Faustus, wants Albia to work with him on the election campaign of his childhood friend Sextus Vibius Marinus, one of a number of candidates seeking the post of aedile. Albia's job is to dig up dirt on Sextus's rivals, and she finds there is a lot of dirt to dig --- much of it due to the complicated shared family history among the candidates, including Sextus, whose wives and ex-wives are all sisters, the marriages engineered by their scheming mother. As Albia and Faustus untangle this web of malice and obsession, they piece together the identity of the corpse in the chest and why he died.

A new Lindsey Davis novel is always a treat for fans of historical fiction and colorful characters.

Click HERE to see the review in Publisher's Weekly.

Click HERE to see the review in Kirkus.



 

Nemesis by Lindsey Davis

Nemesis: A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery by Lindsey Davis --- 342 pages

With this, the twentieth and final volume in her long running Marcus Didius Falco series, Lindsey Davis closes out the adventures of the wily informer and his indomitable wife Helena Justina.

In the summer of A.D 77, during the waning days of the Emperor Vespasian, Marcus and Helena have just suffered the twin blows of losing their newborn son and Marcus' rogue of a father on the same day.

The loss of the baby is devastating; but what Falco never expected was the shock of his father's death --- nor the surprise of discovering that Geminus died a wealthy man and that he left the bulk of that wealth to his long-estranged son. Falco's not sure he knows how to handle becoming a man of property and means, with two houses in Rome, a villa by the sea, a thriving business. It's a relief to throw himself into a new case, and immerse himself in somebody else's troubles besides his own.

A respectable and successful middle-aged couple who supplied statuary to his father have disappeared under mysterious and forboding circumstances. Both were last seen headed for a confrontation with their unsavory neighbors, a family of freedmen (former Imperial slaves) who live in the fever-ridden Pontine Marshes, and seem to spend most of their time brutalizing their wives and children, intimidating their neighbors, and terrorizing the surrounding countryside.

No one will do anything about them, because it seems the freedmen Claudii have friends in very high places protecting them from the consequences of their crimes. When a corpse discovered dumped in a burial ground near Rome turns out to be the husband of Falco's missing couple, Falco and his friend Petronius of the Vigiles believe they have a potential break in the case, but their enemy Anacrites, the Imperial Chief Spy, intervenes to take over the investigation. At first Falco and Helena think Anacrites is motivated by his usual spite and jealousy of Falco and Petro, but the animus runs much deeper. Falco is further alarmed when Anacrites begins harassing his sister Maia, Petro's wife, and making up to his volatile adopted daughter Albia. He and Petro continue to work the case, with covert assistance from Silvius, an agent of the Urban Cohort, who would like to score on Anacrites in the internal political intrigues of the Imperium.

In the end, with help from an unexpected source in his own household, Falco and Petro discover the truth about the Claudii and take the action necessary to protect their families from harm. A dramatic and satisfying conclusion to the series and a hint of what may be in store for the future.

The Ides of April by Lindsey Davis

The Ides of April: A Flavia Albia Mystery by Lindsey Davis --- 340 pages

Lindsey Davis, she who gifted us with Marcus Didius Falco and Helena Justina (rather like Nick and Nora in the Thin Man but set in Imperial Rome), has now embarked on a new series of Roman mysteries featuring their adopted daughter, Flavia Albia, beginning with The Ides of April. Falco, having inherited a fortune from his disruptible father Favonius, has retired from the informer trade. But his headstrong daughter, a twenty-eight year old widow, has taken it up, and using dad's old digs in Fountain Court as her office. The dour Domitian is now Emperor, the Cerelia Festival is about to begin, and a serial killer is on the loose in the Aventine. The murders at first seem random, but slowly Flavia Albia begins to tease out the method in the killer's madness. Davis' trademark colorful characters, wry humor, fast-paced action and period detail proves she is still at the top of her game.