Rating:  - Very Disappointing
Because the writing is literate, I would have rated this book a "3" but for my high expectations when I began reading it. I've reviewed Lindsey Davis' FALCO mysteries before, and always rated them highly--something they deserved--for local color, human interest, scholarship, wit, and unusually good writing.
This one goes nowhere. It's plodding, devoid of Falco's usual mental and physical exertions. There's little if any character development except that Helena's brother Aelianus seems to be maturing and mellowing. Falco is acted upon, rather than being his usual competent and courageous self, someone who controls the denouement of the plot. He makes an inordinate number of errors and bad judgments. His actions turn to dust, and at the end nothing really has changed except that a sour widow has unnecessarily died.
The humor in all the others is missing here; instead there's a deep cynicism. I'm sure Davis will hit her stride again, but this is the least important novel in the series.
Rating:  - Courtroom drama
Ah, it's wonderful to be back in sunny, familiar ancient Rome again, after the last two Davis books where we've been "exiled" to bleak and blustery Britain. Here, murder is again subtle and surrounded by the power plays of the rich and elegant rather than the muddy connivings of barbarians. The historical (textual) richness of Rome is given full play to produce one of Davis' best stories of Falco, informer to the emperor.
In Falco's hobnailed boots, you'll cross and recross Rome (there are handy maps), from dives to courts (not much difference there!, Davis would say), ferret out recalcitrant witnesses and suspects, smell the stench of corpses, suborn informants, suffer goon attacks, fence with devious lawyers, loose your shirt, and be rescued by smart wife Helena--and not just once. Davis leads off with unusually rough language for her. There are delicious ironies scattered through the story: the guilty getting off, the implication of innocents, the unscrupulous rewarded, foul murder excused, rich scions bankrupted--ah, the Roman Forum at work to maintain Senatorial probity.
This story enters deeply into the snares of patriarchical Roman inheritance law. Unsuspecting Falco takes an involved family case of inheritance, suicide, and malfeasance, ranged against two far cleverer and wilier lawyers. Suitably, Davis has a striking change of style for this book. She adds the apparatus of law and deposition to Falco's usual investigations into the underworld or seamy side of Rome. Several times Davis merely summarizes on wax tablets (uh, casebooks) the results of the endless background interviews by Falco and Associates, rather than bore us to tears. Then she presents the entire speeches made before the judge. They read like actual speeches by an advocate like Cicero, full of flourishes and clever rhetorical devices, to insinuate scandalous guilt in the absence of real evidence. What makes this a 5-star story is the ending, one surprise after another, and still more twists follow. (One hint: keep track of the little children.) Superb.
Rating:  - Intrigue in ancient Rome
Lindsey Davis' imaginatively conceived "The Accusers" is an historical fiction set in 75 A.D. Rome following the exploits of her protagonist Marcus Didius Falco. Falco is employed as an informer, the Roman equivalent of a modern day detective. Of equestrian rank, a middle class sature, Falco has been gone from Rome for 6 months and has returned seeking work. He has been summoned by Silius Italicus, a rich and storied informer to perform some investigating.
Italicus had presided over a trial involving senator Rubirius Metellus. Metellus had been convicted of corruption in meting out patronage. The penalty for this conviction was a million and a quarter serterces of which Silius Italicus was to garner the lion's share. Unfortunately for Italicus, Metellus' apparently planned suicide served to protect the family finances and deprive Silius Italicus of his considerable fee. Falco was to investigate the circumstances of the questionable suicide, trying to prove murder instead.
Falco was ably aided by his clear thinking wife, Helena Justina, daughter of a Roman senator and her younger brothers Justinus and Aelianus. Together they formed a formidible team that plodded through all the nuances of Roman law and Metellus family machinations to unravel the circumstances behind Metellus' death.
Davis creates an impressive representation of Roman life complete with maps and genealogic trees. The story however has too many dull moments which serves drag its pace.
Rating: - Another Great Mystery of Ancient Rome!
I seldom read fiction but I make exceptions for some science fiction and very rarely mysteries (my wife is an avid mystery reader and so I get my pick). In these genres I only read works by authors whom I consider to be good writers and that fit my interests in history and science. I realize that this may sound a bit high-handed and arrogant, but I only have a limited amount of time for recreational reading and so have to pick and choose. Lindsey Davis is one of those authors that always fits my standards. Anything written by her is sure to be a good read and is always thought provoking.
In her recent book (2003) "The Accusers" she has not disappointed me. Her knowledge of the culture of ancient Rome of Vespasian's time is astounding, at least as far as I can tell. The informer Marcus Didius Falco, his indomitable patrician wife Helena Justina, their various relatives, associates and enemies round out a group worthy of a Russian novel.
In "The Accusers" a Roman citizen, beset with legal problems, apparently commits suicide at the urging of his wife and possible collusion of his daughter (suicide would cut back on the liability of the family and save the family fortune, which in another twist has been left not to the man's wife, but to his daughter-in-law!) As it becomes evident that the death was murder, his son Negrinus becomes an easy target of those would profit by the murder. Falco and Associates (Falco's wife and her two brothers are the staff) take on the defense of Negrinus (also known as "Birdy"), who they realize is hiding something. As one might suspect, that secret is the key to the death of the father. By the time you read a few pages you are hooked and want to read more.
For me this is the best of mystery writing. I recommend it heartily.
Rating: - Falco and the lawyers
After skewering various professions in her previous Falco novels, Ms. Davis has finally gotten around to getting even with lawyers! As a lawyer myself I laughed uproariously at some of the antics of these "gentlemen of the bar". Even though this work takes place almost two thousand years ago, I easily recognized some of the legal types in it as folks I can encounter almost every day in court. The work reminds me of the Rumpole books, although there is more emphasis on the investigation aspect of the case than the legal side. It's very well-written, as I've come to expect of this series, and full of red herrings and twists and turns for the reader. I hope that Falco makes a very long career in Rome, and that we, his faithful readers, get to read all about that career!
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