Binding: Mass Market Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914 EAN: 9780312357764 ISBN: 0312357761 Label: St. Martin's Minotaur Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 464 Publication Date: October 02, 2007 Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur Release Date: October 02, 2007 Sales Rank: 224629 Studio: St. Martin's Minotaur
It’s the first century A.D. and Marcus Didius Falco, Ancient Rome’s favorite son and sometime palace spy, has just been dealt a lousy blow from the gods: The beautiful, high-born Helena Justina has left him in the dust. So when the Emperor Vespasian calls upon him to investigate an act of treason, Falco is more than ready for a distraction. Disguised as an idle vacationer in the company of his best friend Petronius, Falco travels from the Isle of Capreae to Neapolis and all the way to the great city of Pompeii…where a whole new series of Herculean events—involving yet another conspiracy, and a fateful meeting with his beloved Helena—are about to erupt….
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Number 2 in the excellent "Falco" series
This is the second of a series of detective stories set in Vespasian's Roman Empire and featuring the informer Marcus Didius Falco. Informers in ancient Rome were something between a private detective and a government spy.
I tried this historical detective series because I had enjoyed Ellis Peter's "Brother Cadfael" detective stories. Where Cadfael is excellent, Falco is brilliant. Ellis Peters herself (or to use her real name, Edith Pargeter) said of the early ... Read More
Rating: - Incredible Series
Lindsey Davis has captured the feel of ancient Rome and surrounding countries/seas. She brings Rome and it's inhabitants alive, so much so that you can almost feel what she writes! I recommend the entire series of Marcus Didius Falco and his friends to anyone who likes history and who would like to feel what it was like in ancient Rome.
Rating: - shadows in bronze
Lindsey Davis, as usual, is an excellent author and did a great deal of research before writing this book. Enjoyed it.
Rating: - Not Free SF Reader
Burning conspiracy relations.
Covered up executions, arson, and people from Helena's past all pay a role in this Falco story. Back in Rome, he has some running around to do with his friend Petronius to discover what is going on, under cover of a holiday journey.
His paths cross with Helena multiple times in the course of these investigations, ensuring this book is just about as good as the previous novel.
Rating: - Reading it was a Rare Pleasure
This is the second novel in the mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco, an informer and sleuth. A series of books that have become hugely popular, so much so that the author is now at the forefront of historical mystery writers. It was probably a stroke of genius on her part to have novels that are extremely well researched and contain all the elements that would be and should be found in Rome in AD70, but to have a lead character who has the vocabulary of a present day New York cop.
... Read More
- Number 2 in the excellent "Falco" series
- Incredible Series
