Three Roman Mystery Series: comparison, by CeeViews

I found two new Roman mystery series recently and launched myself into them, hoping to find another like the Marcus Didius Falco series, by Lindsey Davis. But the first lines alone tell the difference. From SPQR XIII, THE YEAR OF CONFUSION, by John Maddox Roberts, "There was nothing wrong with our calendar." Steven Saylor, in THE TRIUMPH OF CAESAR, scores better, with "I heard that you were dead." In SILVER PIGS, the first Falco novel, the tone for the series is set: "When the girl came running up the steps, I decided she was wearing far too many clothes."

Roberts' hero is the senator, Metullus, who rarely leaves the upper class world. Saylor's Gordianus is sixty-four, and a retired "Finder." When Gordianus stirs to action, he takes a trip to the "dangerous Subura region," where there are "fewer togas and more tunics." Falco lives in the world of tunics, often wine-stained and moth-eaten. His only toga comes from his dead big brother Festus, a soldier-hero, and Falco hates it. The wool is hot and horrible to drape properly. Besides, Falco has already informed us in the first chapter that togas were whitened with the ammonia from urine.

Davis's detail for Roman life astounds. Where Roberts describes shouting workmen removing the scaffolding from a public building, Davis informs us they are cursing slaves, wearing one-armed red tunics. Falco, looking around for a diversion, notes that the Forum steps are crowded with illegal touts and overpriced market stalls. He considers overturning some melons, but settles for some copperware instead, so as not to lose the melonseller his profits. Davis establishes the scene in three sentences and kicks over the copper stall in the fourth, never losing momentum. Before SILVER PIGS is half-way through, Falco has gone undercover as a slave in a silver mine, and been rescued barely alive by a snooty senator's daughter, Helena, who drives a pony cart like a Maserati.

Lindsey Davis states that she wrote the first Falco book as a spoof, setting loose a classic PI in imperial Rome. I can't believe she's serious, but the forthright face on her website doesn't lie about anything. Fascinating description, fast action, and Falco's trademark sarcastic humor combine in an unforgettable series.