Books: The Silver Pigs By Lindsey Davis (1989)

"When Marcus Didius Falco, a Roman 'informer' who has a nose for trouble that's sharper than most, encounters Sosia Camillina in the Forum, he senses immediately all is not right with the pretty girl. She confesses to him that she is fleeing for her life, and Falco makes the rash decision to rescue her—a decision he will come to regret. For Sosia bears a heavy burden: as heavy as a pile of stolen Imperial ingots, in fact. Matters just get more complicated when Falco meets Helena Justina, a Senator's daughter who is connected to the very same traitors he has sworn to expose. Soon Falco finds himself swept from the perilous back alleys of Ancient Rome to the silver mines of distant Britain—and up against a cabal of traitors with blood on their hands and no compunction whatsoever to do away with a snooping plebe like Falco."

The first Flaco book offers a trove of history about Roman times, but the mystery part –the murder of a young woman and theft of silver- is not particularly gripping or even interesting. Being the first in a long running series, The Silver Pigs would’ve stopped me from reading any further back in 1989 when the book was released. However, sometimes these books don’t come out fully formed and I would be willing to give Lindsey Davis the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps I should’ve started somewhere else?

I mean, she gives Falco a glib tongue, which generally works in most detective series. But I found Davis concentrating too much on historical aspects that, while far from dull, do slow down her narrative. And I also realize that Davis reconfigured her original idea of a novel about Vespasian –the Roman emperor from 69–79, the fourth, and last, in the Year of the Four Emperors- and his lover Antonia Caenis into a historical whodunnit because she could not find a publisher for her original idea, but at times those two genres seemed to battle for control. I wanted a mystery, I got a history lesson.

I’ve acquired two other Lindsey Davis books, which I’ll try to get to in 2020.