A Body in the Bathhouse

A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery, Book 13

By: Lindsey Davis

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

The 13th novel featuring sleuth Marcus Didius Falco explores the fervor of home improvement that's sweeping the Roman Empire and Falco's own household, specifically the bathhouse - where a body turns up.

Some things never change. With his new villa, Falco also gets a timeless headache: building contractors. After the departure of two shady plasterers, a rank odor in the bathhouse soon leads to the discovery of a corpse under the mosaic floor. Should Falco follow the culprits to remote Britannica? Despite the British weather (damp), the inhabitants (barbarians), and the wine (second-rate), Falco takes his whole family and goes. In veritas, Falco has another, secret reason for this exodus - his sister Maia has rejected the affection of a powerful Roman official, who vows brutal revenge. Now to protect those he loves, Falco must outrun an imperial enemy with a very long - and very deadly - reach.

©2016 Lindsey Davis (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

The wrong narrator makes even a Falco story boring

I read and thoroughly enjoyed this book when it first came out. A complex tale with lots of excitement. This Audible version simply doesn’t do it justice.

Though I have enjoyed Simon Prebble narrations of other authors in the past, this narration is just not up to the mark. It is unbelievably monotonous, pedestrian and frankly boring There are conventions for the pronunciation of Latin derived names and to hear “Atrobates” pronounced to rhyme with rebates or reprobates by chopping out the last syllable is incredibly jarring There are lots of other errors and inconsistencies of pronunciation. It is REALLY sad when these (rather than the story itself) kept me on the edge of my seat.

Falco and Ms. David deserve far better.

Fabulous series

I love this entire series. Didius Falco , the variety of adventurous and the whole varied cast of characters are simply wonderful. A joy to read & hear

entertaining and intelligent

Lindsey Davis always provides an entertaining and intelligent narrative. Falco is the perfect hard-boiled detective with a heart of tarnished gold.

Loved it!

Great book. Loved the historical context and the Latin root words woven into the storyline.

Boring monotonous narrator

The monotonous tone used by the narrator made listening painful, had back the recording and listen to parts again because I had zoned out. Good grief, get the narrator for the SPQR series for crying out loud.

Where's the ending?

I trudged through this one. There was some subtle humor and historical interest, but with so many characters I couldn't keep up with the names. It abruptly ended, seemingly mid-story. I'm still perplexed.

long, tedious, and boring

i struggled to finish listening to this book. However it was very good as a sleep inducer.