Flavia Albia works occasionally as a Private Informer in Rome in AD 90. In the twelfth book of her self-titled series, this Kinsey Milhone of her day is respectably wed to a thoughtful husband, Tiberius Manlius. DEATH ON THE TIBER is about to disturb their peace.
For those who haven’t caught up with prolific author Lindsey Davis, Flavia was an orphan in Britannica, adopted by Marcus Didius Falco and his wife Helena Justina, the senator’s daughter. Falco, the hero of many comedic crime episodes, features more in this mystery than others about Flavia, who inherited Falco's business when the former informer turned to respectable trading in his family’s line of work.
While engrossed in a search for a marble column to rebuild the Temple of Hercules, Tiberius hears that a river dredger turned up a woman’s body. He and Flavia take a look, and a pricey earring and a British cloak suggest something was gravely amiss. Oh, and the victim’s hands had been tied. Aggrieved for a woman and fellow Briton, Flavia tries to get the vigils to investigate. They aren’t refusing, but aren’t saying much either. Turns out the victim – who travelled with a tourist party – was connected to one Florius Oppicus, a low-life Roman. He absconded to Britannia over a decade ago and took up with the victim, Claudia Deiana, but was ordered back to Rome on suspicion of tax evasion. Possibly, his wife in Rome, who runs a brothel, had something to say to him – if they met.
This is a long story, full of characters and large set-pieces, like a mobster funeral or a raid on a brothel. We spend much time hanging around the vigile stations and tramping the hot, dusty streets of Rome. The Eternal City comes across as busy, tawdry, opulent, impoverished, and in the process of being pulled down and rebuilt. What I feel is lacking is the wry wit of the Falco stories. Flavia Albia is very much her own woman, with a grim and brittle edge. Her earliest story, The Ides Of April, in which she squatted in a derelict tenement in Fountain Court waiting for informer business, is revisited. Then she was a young woman; now she is thirty. She’s not found a sense of humour yet. Flavia still tries to get paid for her work, though it’s not immediately clear who would foot the bill.
DEATH ON THE TIBER carries a clear nod – or two – to Death On The Nile, but fails to produce the characters, rather sticking with the Ancient Roman version of The Godfather. The detail is fascinating and it’s good to keep up with old friends.
In first century Rome, a murder victim found in the Tiber leads to a brutal gang war and Flavia Albia to a confrontation with her long-hated nemesis, with all that she loves in the balance.
First century Rome is plagued by all the evils the have beset major cities since time immemorial: crime, corruption, squalor, and worst of all, tourists. When a barge full of those entitled creatures arrives in Rome, they hit all the touristy hot-spots (the Amphitheatre, the Capitol, the dodgy bars with dubious entertainments) before departing for the next destination – leaving behind one of their party, dead and floating in the Tiber. While the authorities first try to pass her death off as a suicide, it’s quickly proved that the victim strangled to death and her body dumped. When Flavia Albia, a private informer, learns that the victim was in Rome searching for the man who abandoned her, Florius, Albia’s vicious nemesis, Albia is determined to find out the truth behind the murder and finally have her revenge.
Florius is the husband of the leader of the Balbinus, one of Rome’s most vicious criminal gangs, giving him even more reason to have murdered his former mistress. Currently engaged in a brutal turf war, with bodies dropping everywhere, Florius is fighting for his very survival and has little interest in one dead body. Now Albia must risk everything, including the life she has carefully built, if she is finally to bring Florius to justice. If justice is even possible.
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy