A Body in the Bathhouse

Mixing historical research with a sense of humor, Ms Davis makes Roman life, except for the blood sports, 'modern.' (Especially if you are a rugby fan) She has kept a long series going with fresh new stories that don't seem tired. I have followed M. Didius through all of his adventures and family trials and tribulations and am quite pleased. I look forward to her next book. This is one of the few mystery books that I like.

Lindsey Davis has created a great series about an informer in ancient Rome. The informer, Marcus Didius Falco, is the modern equivalent of a private detective. In this novel he is commissioned by the Emperor Vespasian to settle problems on a building site in Britain. He refuses the commission until he finds the body of a labourer under the floor of his own bath house and discovers the builders who put him there have absconded to Britain, probably to the very same palace that the Emperor is concerned about. Davis has chosen the site of the palace that was discovered in Fishbourne near Chichester in 1960. The costs are too high for the civic purse and Falco discovers a phantom team of labourers and a crooked architect's stash of stolen building materials when he arrives with his family at the distant province. Davis' style of writing makes this a most enjoyable series to read.

It's been a tough time for Roman informant Falco. First he and his father discover a decomposing body buried under the tiles of his bathhouse. Second, his chief rival begins stalking his sister. Third, Emperor Vespasian wants him to go to Britain to sort out a building project gone bad. Finally, Falco's been asked to find work for his wife's overly energetic but highly impractical brothers. When the chief murder suspects turn up missing, Falco decides to go where the biggest building project is located--Britain--even though he hates that dreary island. Britain is every bit as dreary as Falco remembers from his days in the military, and it's still a sleepy province far from the civilization of Rome. But Vespasian wants to build a fancy palace for one of the few local kings who supported Rome during a recent rebellion--and he doesn't want to have to pay too much. Falco finds the building crews at war with one another, and nasty hints that the corruption goes even deeper than is usual. Unfortunately, those who benefit from the graft want to keep things just the way they are. It's up to Falco to sort out the problems without creating a diplomatic crisis for his Emperor. Fortunately, Falco's brothers-in-law turn out to be hard-working, if impractical, and his wife, Helena remains a pillar of strength. Which is lucky when the body count really starts to mount. Author Lindsey Davis delivers an exciting and amusing tale of mystery and history. Falco is a richly detailed character with a lot going on in his life and a lot of constraints that keep him from just throwing out all the scoundrels and starting over. Davis weaves together the multiple mysteries in the novel into a complete whole, gives an intriguing glimpse into what Rome and its provinces might have been like when Rome really did rule the world, and does it with a light tough that keeps the pages turning. A BODY IN THE BATHHOUSE is a fine and rewarding mystery.

Well, for myself as a reader, anyway. Falco has bad luck in spades. My eyes didn't glaze over once while I was reading. (Okay, I did fall asleep after chapter 19, but it *was* 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. When I woke up, I grabbed for the book before I grabbed for my glasses and my cat was miffed by how long it took me to fetch her morning ration of canned catfood.)I love mysteries where our hero/heroine has loads of odd relatives. It's rather nice that with this couple the problem kin are from both sides. After all the trouble Helena's brothers were, it was good to see them put through their paces later on. The historical details were a plus. I enjoyed having them sandwiched in with dealing with the various workmen. The last few chapters might as well have been lumped under the title, "The Perils of Public Informer Falco & Family". They go from one very dangerous situation to another to another. In short, I had a lot of fun with this entry.

Cotta and Gloccus were incompetent workers who installed informer (the ancient Roman equivalent to the modern day private eye) Marcus Didus Falco's new bathhouse. A terrible odor emanating from his new edifice forces Falco to dig up the floor where he finds the remains of a man who was murdered. Cotta and Gloccus are nowhere to be found, but Falco thinks they might be headed for Britain where King Togidubnus, a favorite of the Roman Emperor Vespasian, is having a palace built with imperial funds.Falco accompanied by his wife, children, and sister travel to the outpost of the Roman Empire to find out why there so many overruns and unexplained deaths in building the palace. Falco's sister Maia wants to escape Rome to elude a deadly spy who has taken to stalking her after she broke off their relationship. After investigating the building site, Falco finds corruption, graft and wholesale stealing but that doesn't explain why somebody murders the manager or why the partner of Maria's stalker's is in the area.Readers who see the world through the eyes of a Roman living in 79 AD notice just how primitive and barbaric they feel Britain is compared to Rome. The protagonist's difficulties with various family members lighten up a very dark and serious story line. The mystery is a clever who done it with so many viable suspects that readers won't be able to guess who the perpetrator really is.Harriet Klausner