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Have toga, will travel

John Lee

PICTURE YOUR typical private detective - lantern jaw, cigarette dangling from bruised lips, hat pulled over one eye, and a stubby Baretta pistol in the pocket of his faded trenchcoat. Then replace it with a toga, sandals and sword and you have Marcus Didius Falco, gumshoe and sometime government informer of ancient Rome.

The year is 74AD and while the Roman Empire flourishes, Falco's fortunes are not as bright. Having just spent a few hellish months in dusty Tripolitania helping out the emperor with his census, he has returned to his beloved mate Helena Justina in the hope of finding new clients and enough money to get out of their modest apartment in a very unfashionable part of town.

Instead, the emperor confers on him the dubious privilege of becoming Procurator of the Sacred Geese and he looks set to spend the rest of his life cleaning up bird pooh, until a little girl turns up on his doorstep.

She is Gaia Laelia, granddaughter of the retired head of a priestly order. Gaia, though only six, is to become the next Vestal Virgin, a great honour, but one she does not seem to relish. Not only that, the precocious child is convinced a member of her distinguished family wants her dead. When she disappears shortly after her visit, Falco gets suspicious.

All the detective novel stereotypes are here, but in Lindsey Davis' capable hands, they are given a fresh slant. Just as Philip Marlowe is always clashing with the cops, so Falco has an uneasy relationship with the dim watchmen, who patrol Rome's dangerous streets and never catch anyone. He has shifty friends and a wisecracking broad with a body to die for, who loves him in spite of herself.

And when it comes to lawyers, some things never change. Falco remarks, 'Thanks to the fine Roman attitude that lawyers are sharks who should be given as little encouragement as possible, there are usually only four or five days a month in which they are allowed to bamboozle clients.' (Other nations might consider adopting this rule.)

If, like me, the only novels about ancient Rome you have read are I Claudius and Claudius The God get ready for something different.

Davis may have a lighter and less scholarly touch than Robert Graves, and the humorous, sharp dialogue and plot with all its twists and turns, put this book (the 11th in the Marcus Falco series) firmly in the detective/mystery genre. But the author shows herself to be an accomplished historical novelist with a firm grasp of time and place.

One Virgin Too Many

by Lindsey Davis

The Mysterious Press $190

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