Davis, Lindsey - The Silver Pigs

[oyceter]

Like the other people on my list who started reading Davis, I put the books in my to-read pile after seeing minnow1212 pimp it in her fifteen favorite fictional couples post.

Marcus Didius Falco is an informer in Vespasian Rome; I know next to nothing about Roman culture and history, so this doesn't mean a great deal to me. On the other hand, like everyone else, I was highly amused by the Dramatis Personae (Minnow, Kate and Mely quote from it, links below), and when I finally remembered to get the book and start reading it, I was also greatly amused by Falco's narrative voice.

I have absolutely no head for mysteries in and of themselves; to be honest, I'm not even sure what Falco ended up investigating, except that it involved a blonde in distress and stolen Imperial silver. But then, there's enough fun character interaction to tide me through. In fact, there's a great deal of fun character interaction, and I really loved both Falco and the heroine and how they worked together.

I don't know enough about noir or mystery or ancient Rome to figure out how factual Davis' setting is and how much she's riffing off noir and mystery conventions, but I can tell that she is a bit, and it's really fun to read.

I'm really looking forward to reading the next few in the series; Falco cracks me up.

kate_nepveu's review

coffeeandink's review

Comments

Re: Here via a friend's flist, and unable to resist commenting on Falco

[oyceter]

Oh, that is cool! I mean, I personally don't mind that it's a riff off of the stereotypical hard-boiled detective, but I love knowing that it is (or could be) historically accurate as well!