by Lindsey Davis
It’s always fun to encounter a “good read” that you missed along the way. Lindsey Davis’ The Silver Pigs was originally published in 1989. But I didn’t catch up with it until recently. I’d been looking for a fresh (to me) mystery series to read, and Davis’ books were recommended. The Silver Pigs is the first in the series. I will certainly be returning to read more of them.
Davis’ main character, Marcus Didius Falco, performs like a private investigator in the colorful ancient Rome of the Emperor Vespasian. The intrigues of the Imperial City and the mixture of lower class apartments with the villas and palaces of the Senatorial class echo the more modern noir environments of a Phillip Marlowe case. Nothing about humanity is unfamiliar. Yet, Davis does a fine job of conveying the mundane, daily aspects of the ancient city life, which are different enough from our own modern rhythms.
In this book, Falco tumbles into a dangerous intrigue against the recently crowned Vespasian, when he rescues a lovely teen-aged girl from some ruffians. Untangling the mystery behind the attempted kidnapping of her takes Falco through the dangerous currents of traitorous conspiritors to a few months of hard labor in the silver mines of Britannia. Along the way, he meets the stubborn and opinionated Helena Justina, cousin to his rescuee and a Senator’s daughter, right out of his class. Needless to say, sparks fly.
Davis moves the story along at a good clip. She has a sure hand on the period detail. And like any good mystery, she unfolds the story through the character interactions.
Definitely a pleasure to read.
