Saturnalia...

[fajrdrako]

I read the latest Lindsay Davis novel, Saturnalia.

Her first novel, The Silver Pigs, is one of my favourite historical novels: it introduced our protagonist, the Informer Marcus Didius Falco, and Helena Justina. I love them both. The story is primarily a mystery, but I loved it on so many levels: the history, the relationship, the characters. Like all the Falco books, it's set in Rome, in the time of Vespasian.

After The Silver Pigs, I read the Falco novels with passionate enjoyment until I got to Last Act in Palmyra, and ground to a halt. I thought it was boring, and the plot utterly stupid - so disappointing, in a book about ancient theatre. As I tend to do in such cases, I stopped reading Davis then and there. The impetus was gone. I read Ode to a Banker a few years ago, without much enthusiasm - not sure I even finished it.

But. Saturnalia is terrific. I enjoyed just about everything about it, including seeing a somewhat more mature, infinitesimally more respectable, and much more successful Falco. So this is the eighteenth novel - ? My goodness. I've missed a lot.

The story: the German rebel priestess Veleda is in Rome as a prisoner, facing ignominious public death. She escapes custody - to the embarrassment of the State - and is suspected of murdering someone in the household she escaped from. Falco, owing her an old debt, wants to find her before the authorities do - and before his well-born brother-in-law Justinus, who once loved Veleda, gets himself into further trouble with the family and the law. Someone is murdering runaway slaves and vagrants, and everyone - including Falco's Ma and his motley tribe of sisters - is celebrating Saturnalia.

It's funny, suspenseful and smart, and may have restored my faith in Lindsey Davis.

Comments

[threeringedmoon.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure which book I bailed at during the series, but I will give Saturnalia a try if I see it at the library.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was quite encouraged to see how much I enjoyed it this time.

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I, too, had given up on the Lindsey Davis Roman mysteries; I'm so glad to hear there's another good one.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I thought so. Makes me wonder if I shouldn't read backwards for a bit. Or maybe they're all hit and miss. Maybe I should just reread "The Silver Pigs", that would be fun!

Roman novels

[(Anonymous)]

How do these compare to (say) Guy Gavriel Kay's "Lord of Emperors" ?

Re: Roman novels

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Er. Um. Interesting question. I think Guy Gavriel Kay is umpteen times the stylist that Davis is, and his use of genre is very different. The Falco novels are in the first person, with nice tight narrative, while Kay always uses multiple viewpoints. The competence with history is equal, though Davis is always in Imperial Rome (or its Empire) while Kay picks different periods. In terms of characters and themes, "The Silver Pigs" is the equal in quality of anything by Kay, but none of the other Falco novels are as good - and all have generally a much lighter tone, suitable to mysteries but lacking the depth that Kay aspires to.

Davis' stylistic influences are Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie. Kay's stylistic influences are J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy Dunnett. I think it makes Kay a better writer, but Davis is better than many mystery writers, with or without the history.

On a scale of 1 to 10 where 5 is average and 10 is brilliant, Guy Kay is consistently at 8 or 9. "The Silver Pigs" is at 9 but the rest of Davis' work would be at 6 or 7, dipping down to 4 or so for "Last Act in Palmyra".

[filkferengi]

Sometimes authors will have a renaissance like that; I'm glad you caught one.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It just goes to say you should never give up on a formerly good author.