See Delphi and Die

Another thumbs up for Davis, the Marcus Didius misteries get better every time, this one is no exception. Mistery lovers should read them all!!

It's hard to believe that this book is the 17th in the Falco series, for the plot and the action seem fresh. Once again we are taken, along with Falco and party, to a different province of the Roman Empire, this time Greece. There are two mysterious deaths of young women, and Falco wangles some travelling money from the Imperial treasury to do investigating. The writing, as usual is crisp and humorous, and the characters are extremely well-defined, particularly the members of the ill-fated touring group involved in one of the deaths. The plot goes round and round, and the ending is quite a shock, although the author has laid clues here and there throughout the book. Looking forward to the 18th entry in the Falco series!

This is the 17th (!) book in the amazing series about Didius Falco, an "informer" and sometime imperial agent in Rome circa 76AD. As usual, much of the book involves interactions between Falco, his wife, family and friends in the context of imperial Rome. This time we travel through various towns in Greece investigating two murders on two different foreign tours booked from Rome. Each book can be read separately from the rest of the series, but ideally the reader will start at the beginning, Silver Pigs. It is important to not miss Two for the Lions, which resolves threads from earlier volumes. The Silver Pigs (1989) Shadows in Bronze (1990) Venus in Copper (1991) The Iron Hand of Mars (1992) Poseidon's Gold (1993) Last Act in Palmyra (1994) Time to Depart (1995) A Dying Light in Corduba (1996) Three Hands in the Fountain (1997) Two for the Lions (1998) One Virgin Too Many (1999) Ode to a Banker (2000) A Body in the Bath House (2001) The Jupiter Myth (2002) The Accusers (2003) Scandal Takes a Holiday (2004) See Delphi and Die (2005) Saturnalia (2007) [...]

Lindsey Davis is one of the few mystery writers that I regularly read. I am more interested in science fiction and non-fiction usually. But Davis' ability to describe the world of the Flavian emperors in the time of the first of these (Vespasian) is so good that you feel you are there in Rome or some far-flung part of the empire. You can smell the sea at Ostia and the delicacies of the fast food stalls in Rome itself or some backwater of the empire. The current work, "See Delphi and Die," is set in Greece 200 years after Rome conquered that home of democracy. Marcus Didius Falco, together with his wife and partner the patrician Helena Justina have been asked by Helena's mother to look into the death of a young woman who was on a tour with her new husband. The couple of newlyweds were at Olympia, home of the Olympic Games of classical times when she goes missing and turns up dead. She was obviously murdered (with a jumping weight). Her husband is distraught and, despite the arguments that he had with her, is not suspected. Falco and Helena are left with a mystery, which is compounded by the earlier death of another young women near the same location and associated with the same tour group. The cast includes some young Romans who are with Falco and Helena , a homicidal athlete (who might have been the murderer), various tour guides, tourists, public officials and many others. The husband of the dead woman has gone off with Helena's brother, who happened by accident to be in the area at the time of the murder (hence his mother's interest), so initially Falco and Helena can only question the remaining tourists and eventually the tour guide, who all seem no help. As the pair have been kicked out of Olympia the interviews take place at Corinth. All this time the earlier death hangs over the current investigation like the ghost it is. The tale spins on to the usually fascinating ending and I will not spoil the readers fun. If you like historical fiction and/or murder mysteries, you will love this book!

In 76 A.D. widower Caesius Secundus hires informer Marcus Didius Falco to investigate the unsolved murder of his beloved daughter Marcella Caesius. She vanished while attending the 213th Olympic competition three years ago before her corpse was finally found. Officials assume the cold case will never be solved. With the Olympic Games starting soon, Falco figures that is the best place to learn who abducted Marcella so he arranges a trip to Greece to attend the gala and begin his investigation. He takes his wife Helena with him, but leaves their young daughters (Julia and Favonia) with their grandmother; Falco also recruits his nephews Gaius and Cornelius, Albia the Brit, and Young Glaucus son of a trainer. Falco quickly learns that another young woman, Valeria Ventidia, violently died on a sightseeing expedition sponsored by the same party that Marcella went with, Seven Sights Travel. So he joins their tour as he thinks let the games begin. The seventeenth Falco Ancient Rome (and now Greece) investigation is a terrific entry that uses the case to provide readers an incredible tour (Olympia is the fifth stop). Long time fans will appreciate the clever hero who still get distracted too easily and his brilliant wife who insures they stay focused. The inquiry turns personal when suddenly Gaius and Cornelius vanish in this wonderful whodunit that is part mystery and part historical novel and all entertainment with quite a final twist. Harriet Klausner