Nemesis

July 19, 2010
Davis immediately engages the reader's sympathies in her fine 20th ancient Roman historical featuring informer Marcus Didius Falco (after 2009's Alexandria) with her moving depiction of the death of Falco's newborn son. When Falco seeks out his father to share the horrible news, he's stunned to learn that "Pa" has also died. While Falco is coming to terms with the double tragedy, an associate asks him to help look into the murder of Julius Modestus, an art dealer whose mutilated body was dumped in a mausoleum. Falco learns that Modestus and his wife vanished after making complaints about the difficult Claudii, freedmen who originally came from the imperial family, with whom the couple had a border dispute in the Pontine Marshes. With its tricky, suspenseful plot, this entry deserves to join its immediate predecessor on bestseller lists, though some modern-sounding prose ("Have they lawyered up?" one character asks) won't please every historical fan.

December 1, 2010

Marcus Didius Falco returns in New York Times best-selling novelist Davis's (lindseydavis.co.uk) 20th title to feature the Roman informer, following Alexandria (2009), also available--along with eight previous titles in the series--from AudioGO. This time, Falco's rollicking humor is muted by grief: his newborn son and his father have just died, leaving him and his wife, Helena, lost in sorrow. In the course of managing his new inheritance, Falco stumbles onto some calculated murders that seem to evoke in Falco himself a new brutality. British actor/narrator Christian Rodska portrays Falco sympathetically, choosing for him a gruff, cocky voice and for Helena more elegant diction with softer and smoother tones. Audiences should listen to the earlier series entries first to appreciate adequately this darker chapter in the lives of the Didius family. Recommended. [The Minotaur: St. Martin's hc was recommended as being "important for lovers of historical mystery," LJ 8/10.--Ed.]--Juleigh Muirhead Clark, Colonial Williamsburg Fdn. Lib., VA

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