Alexandria

A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery

By: Lindsey Davis

Narrated by: Christian Rodska

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

In first century A.D. Rome, Marcus Didius Falco works as a private "informer," ferreting out hidden truths and bringing villains to ground. But even informers take vacations, so in A.D. 77, Falco and his wife Helena Justina travel to Alexandria, Egypt. Before long the Librarian of the great library is found dead and Falco quickly finds himself on the trail of dodgy doings, malfeasance, and the lowest of the low - book thieves! As the bodies pile up, it's up to Falco to untangle this horrible mess and restore order.

©2009 Lindsey Davis (P)2009 BBC Audio

A Bit Disappointing

Please read the previous review. I would repeat it word for word.

One of the best of a great series

This installment has wonderful historical research, a lively plot and subtle character relations. The narrator does it all justice.

Falco can't catch a break, love this series

Falco goes to Alexandria for vacation with pregnant wife Helena and his two young daughters, and his adopted teenage daughter. What was supposed to be pleasure trip turns into WORK for Falco. He has to solve murders, and the more he finds the dirtier everything gets. But you know Falco and his wonderful wife Helena will work it out. Great series.

The elevated writing style and artistic anachronism.

I enjoyed this work tremendously. The author has great wit, and the anachronistic use of vernacular work creatively to help the contemporary reader better relate to the characters. I appreciate the focus of the narrative and the deliberate lack of extreme focus on gore/gruesomeness that other authors sometimes bathe in with intent to add shock. I appreciate the author's writing style, and historical research.

Being an armchair Egyptologist and enthusiast, and Alexandria being a favorite classical age city of mine above even Athens I appreciate her attention and educational direction. A delight to read!

My first Lyndsey Davis novel

I had read a short story about Marcus Falco in a compendium of Historical Whodunits. I like the character and cast of characters created. This book has long been on my reading list as an excellent "locked door" mystery. It was a good story. Not the best mystery I've read. Two recurring characters of the series appear mid-way through to give character references for suspects. This seemed contrived - just an easy way to give answers where noodling through the problems would have been harder and taken longer. The end result of the average mystery, as opposed to the great story, was OK. Not fully satisfying to me.

A Bit Disappointing

This book wasn't as good as the first two in the series.I wanted to like it more than I did, because I really enjoyed the first two books.

It dragged a bit. By the time the mystery is solved, it's a bit anticlimactic; I just wanted to finish it up.

Falco's snarkiness was lacking. Only one of the supporting characters, Philadelphian, was particularly interesting.

The narrator did a decent, if unremarkable, job.

Sorry - prefer Simon Prebble narrating

I love the series, but of the alternating narrators, Simon Prebble matches much better with my internal image of the Marcus Didius Falco character. For me, Christian Rodksa who narrates this one makes the character rougher, more disgruntled and misanthropic, rather than the fellow with a wry sense of humor and underlying affection that Simon Prebble conveys. One minor point if they have to switch authors - wish they could all agree how to pronounce names of people and places, correctly and consistently… Love to know how these decisions are made, and where the editorial guidance goes awry….

Ok listen overall.

I love books about ancient times told through the eyes of the main character of the story. This books did this for the most part, except the story got lost occassionally in the main character's internal dialouge. Very detailed in descriptions of places and settings. Loved it a lot. Wished it moved faster, though.

Huge fun!

An excellent entry to the series about the most delightful Falco! This one has the excitement and danger without a great deal of gory details. I enjoyed it very much!

Parrot

I miss the Parrot they can live 80 years or more. It would be fun to see him in a story.