Scandal Takes A Holiday - Hardcover

Davis, Lindsey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892968125 ISBN 13: 9780892968121

Publisher: Mysterious Pr, 2004

Synopsis

When the scribe of ancient Rome's daily scandal column goes missing in seaside Ostia, first-century investigator Marcus Didius Falco learns that the scribe was working on a story about an underworld kidnapping racket involving pirates. By the author of The Accusers. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

The 16th of Lindsey Davis's fluent, funny Roman thrillers, Scandal Takes a Holiday puts official informer Falco to work searching for a missing journalist in the bustle of Rome's port, Ostia. As everyone keeps telling Falco, there are no pirates any more--the emperors put a stop to them for good--and yet somehow the old pirate havens of Illyria and Cilicia are just as prosperous as ever and rich, retired old men from both regions seem to fetch up in Ostia, along with gangsters, kidnappers and assassins.

The usual members of Falco's extended family are along for the investigation--the fact he has had to hire a seaside apartment does not escape those anxious to escape a Roman summer--and as always much of the book's charm comes from Falco's endless romance with his clever, posh wife Helena. This is also the book in which Falco finally meets the one uncle that no-one ever talks about; this is not one of the most profound of the Falco books (which can sometimes add seriousness and poignancy to their other virtues) but it is an entertaining and intelligent puzzle that, as always, tells us things we didn't know about Roman life. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

"Modern, exciting and plausible" (Sunday Times)

"As always, Davis weaves a plot full of humour, surprises and domestic irony" (Times Literary Supplement)

"This is the sixteenth Falco novel, and they have built up a large following. It is not hard to see why. They are amiable and unpretentious ... The research that has gone into them allows the externals of Roman life to be presented in an evocative way. Yet the interior life of the characters remains reassuringly modern ... Philip Marlowe in a toga" (Times Literary Supplement)

"Required holiday reading for all travel within the bounds of the ancient Roman Empire" (Financial Times)

"This is the sixteenth Falco novel, and they have built up a large following. It is not hard to see why. They are amiable and unpretentious ... Philip Marlowe in a toga" (Times Literary supplement)

About this edition

• Publisher: Mysterious Pr
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0892968125
• ISBN 13: 9780892968121
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 332