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Publisher:
Century (Random House UK) |
Release
Date: June 3, 2004 |
ISBN:
0712625879 |
Awards:
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Format
Reviewed: Hardback |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Historical Crime [AD 70, Ostia (near Rome) |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewer
Notes: |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
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Scandal Takes a Holiday
By Lindsey
Davis
Lindsey Davis' bestselling Falco series
shows no sign of waning in popularity, and the sleuth and his ever-increasing
extended family is back for a sixteenth outing. This time they are
in Ostia, where Falco is on a case to find a missing journalist
who writes for Rome's Daily Gazette. But nobody wants to tell Falco
about "Infamia," and soon his investigations are leading
into dangerous waters and the so-called extinct world of piracy.
It is looking as though Pompey did not get rid of all the pirates
after all - but why would they want to kidnap a gossip columnist?
Events unroll at the usual pace, but while this is going on, you
can find out more about Falco's family. This series has now reached
the same stage as Elizabeth Peters' Amelia series, in that the characters
seem like old friends, and meeting them in another book is rather
like a family reunion. We finally find out why nobody is supposed
to mention Uncle Fulvius, and we also get a very real-seeming picture
of Falco straddling the two opposite worlds of the working and upper
classes. Ostia comes to bustling, waterfront life, and it all comes
together nicely, although this is not the paciest, funniest or most
historically engaging entry in the series. Fans will read and enjoy.
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