My Weekly Book

See Delphi and Die - Lindsey Davis

I appear to have approached this, the 17th Falco novel, in utterly the wrong frame of mind. Drawing very close to the end of the 50 Book Challenge, and faced with the possibility of completing it some three months early, I am impatient with anything I can’t knock off in 24 hours. Unfortunately this rather nice little murder mystery deserves a little more attention.

[Buy from Amazon] [Search on eBay]

It tells the story of a trip taken by Falco and Helena (minus their offspring, mercifully) to Greece. They go, partly at Imperial expense, in order to investigate the deaths (several years apart) of two young women travelling with the same dodgy tour company. This was the source of some of my reservations. I found the idea of the Roman package holiday, complete with annoying companions, pontificating guides, gimcrack souvenirs, half-built hotels, dodgy dinners and people speaking very slowly and distinctly in Latin just a little bit too knowing for comfort. And you could also argue that the story takes a bit too long to get going while all the protagonists manoeuvre themselves into position.

This book’s saving grace is that alongside the package holiday jokes and the vast comet-tail of an extended family that trails Falco to the Peloponnese is an absolutely cracking mystery. It reminded me strongly of Three Hands In The Fountain, another one in this series that I liked a lot – hopefully that doesn’t give too much away. It is, after a fashion, a locked-room mystery in that there is a tight, self-contained group of suspects from among which Falco must find the murderer. The writing is assured, economical, humorous and brimming with character. There is plenty of suspense plus a powerful hook for the next in the series (not sure what I think about this yet) and a horrible-funny ending which seems to make everyone exclaim with shock despite being (I thought) quite well-telegraphed. It got the balance of predictability and shock right on the nail for me. By this I mean that I came within a discus-throw of identifying the murderer, and thus feel complacent, clever and well-disposed towards Falco and Ms Davis, while still having been surprised by the actual twist.

All in all, another very creditable and enjoyable outing for Falco and one that leaves me keen to read Saturnalia, his next adventure. Also, I have a signed copy of The Course of Honour sitting on the shelf now…

Lindsey Davis official website:
http://www.lindseydavis.co.uk

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 4:59 pm and is filed under 2006 reading challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.