Poseidon’s Gold

Falco, Book 5

By: Lindsey Davis

Narrated by: Gordon Griffin

Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

'Your brother seemed to know what he was doing.'

Rome, AD 72. Falco returns home from a six-month mission to the German legions. But trouble is in store for him: his apartment has been wrecked by squatters and an ex-legionary friend of his colourfully heroic brother Festus is demanding money, allegedly owed him as the result of one of Festus's wild schemes.

Worse still, the only client Falco can get is his mother - who wants him to clear the family name. Then just as Falco thinks things can only get better, fate takes a turn for the worse. The legionary is found viciously stabbed to death, with Falco the prime suspect.

Now he has only three days to prove he is not a murderer, to trace the real suspect, amass evidence and win a fortune.

©1993 Lindsey Davis (P)2014 Audible Ltd

I’ve been enjoying this series

Other than finding that I like putting the speed at 1.25 (maybe it gives more a tone of excitement?), I am enjoying this series a lot (though I still miss Medicus). Fun characters, and how can’t we enjoy his relationship with Helena? Gordon Griffin does a fine job. What a fun way to do drudgery in the kitchen or walk for exercise!

The female eye - again

Good story with a interesting and believable storyline and movements in regard to both Falco's family as well as his romantic entanglement with Helena. So worth listening to. But: Writing this review gave me pause for thought and I at this point have a suspicion that Lindsey Davis, basically is offering a reverse Barbara Cartland, much less interesting than a reverse cowgirl. Barbara Cartland is using a historical context (often) to portray some young misunderstood girl falling in love with some socially unattainable gentleman and out this she spins here yarn. Switch the roles and this is the emotional motor of the story. Low born man, high born girl and how are they ever to come together? Then merge this with a blatant disregard for the mores of the time and the basic story becomes unplausible, bordering on insulting to men. Falco is not a Roman man, he is a henpicked modern man hardly even to be found in today's efeminitized world. Doing the dishes, cooking the food etc. As plausible as that Falco is served a polenta (a corn based dish from crops found in South America in the 16th century). The fight scenes are as artificial as jello and Ms Davis should read a couple or more of Lee Child's books to study the choreography of realistic fight scenes. So this is almost some sort of female smut, set in historic time but lived by figures from today. A little as a holodeck experience on Starship Enterprise, enjoyable but a cheap thrill.So guys, leave this to your girlfriends or even worse your wifes and their fantasies about how men are. Ms Davis's to-do would be to read SPQR by Mary Beard as well as the aforementioned books of Lee Child.