Two For The Lions: (Marco Didius Falco: book X): another gripping foray into the crime and corruption of Ancient Rome from bestselling author Lindsey Davis (Falco, 10) - Softcover

Davis, Lindsey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099515261 ISBN 13: 9780099515265

Publisher: Arrow, 2009

Synopsis

‘What did he eat last? Whom did he eat, in fact?’

Lumbered with working alongside reptilian Chief Spy Anacrites, Falco has the perfect plan to make money – he will assist Vespasian in the Emperor’s ‘Great Census’ of AD 73. His potential fee could finally allow him to join the middle ranks and be worthy of long-suffering Helena Justina.

Unexpectedly confronted with the murder of a man-eating lion, Falco is distracted from his originaltask, uncovering a bitter rivalry between the gladiators’ trainers. With one star gladiator dead, Falco is forced to investigate and the trail leads from Rome to the blood-soaked sand of the arena in North Africa.

About this title

Product Description:

Two for the Lions

Review:

The further Davies gets into her series of private eye (or, to be precise, public informer) thrillers set in the Rome of Vespasian, the more she learns what it is that she does best. Falco is working for the tax department, investigating used gladiator scams, and stumbles into more murders. The various mysteries here--the stabbing of the arena- lion trained to eat criminals, the murder of a famous gladiator generally considered past his prime--are solved elegantly enough and with a genial ruthlessness appropriate to the period in which they are set.

Davies never forgets that this society rests on the backs of slaves and has a taste for bloodshed which even we might consider excessive. But what we read Davies for is partly for the continuing soap opera of on-the-make Falco, his upper-class wife Helena and their variously rackety, lowlife or snobbish connections, and partly for her simply wonderful knowledge of how things worked. We learn, for example, a lot about the wild- beast trade and provincial resentments in a North Africa which the Romans still suspect are more Carthaginian than not; Davies's novels are entertaining and informative, and leave one wanting more.--Roz Kaveney

About this edition

• Publisher: Arrow
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0099515261
• ISBN 13: 9780099515265
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400