The Third Nero

The Flavia Albia Mysteries, Book 5

By: Lindsey Davis

Narrated by: Lucy Brown

Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Intrigue - and possibly treason - swirl around the hall of power in Rome when yet another Nero pretender emerges to challenge the Emperor.

In AD 90, following the Saturninus revolt in Germany, the emperor Domitian has become more paranoid about traitors and dissenters around him. This leads to several senators and even provincial governors facing charges and being executed for supposed crimes of conspiracy and insulting the emperor. Wanting to root out all the supports of Saturninus from the Senate, one of Domitian's men offers to hire Flavia Alba to do some intelligence work.

Flavia Alba, daughter and chip off the old block of Marcus Didius Falco, would rather avoid any and all court intrigue, thank you very much. But she's in a bit of a bind. Her wedding is fast approaching, her fiancé is still recovering - slowly - from being hit by a lightning bolt, and she's the sole support of their household. So with more than a few reservations, she agrees to "investigate".

Adding to the confusion is yet another Nero pretender who has shown up in Parthia and is trying to rally support for his claim for the throne. With intrigue upon intrigue swirling around the capital city, it's up to Albia to uncover what is - and isn't - the real threat.

©2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2017 Lindsey Davis

Flavia sounds like herself

After complaining about the narrator for the previous book, I was pleased to see someone did this reading. Lucy Brown, to me at least, made Flavia’s inner monologues sound believable. The interplay between Flavia and Faustus continues to grow and add a thread to the plot.

Another complex caper in ancient Rome

I really enjoy these stories as much as I ever enjoyed their predecessors, the Falco series. I will say this: they’re not the easiest to listen to, or perhaps it’s just me. They are extremely complicated and the Roman names might be better kept straight on the printed page rather than listened to, or, as I said, perhaps that’s just me. Nevertheless it’s a worthwhile listen.

Little thing, huge distraction

I enjoyed the book, happy the author stopped making Flavia Alba *giggle* in every other chapter. The narrator was good but… I don’t know if it was something about the recording or if she was actually chewing gum through the whole thing, but whatever that masticating noise happened to be, it was extremely distracting. I can’t put gum chewing and Ancient Rome together in my head.

Albia hits her stride here.

I've felt that the Albia character has been awkward, not fully confident and not quite her own person until this book.

Hard to listen to.

While the narrator has a fine accent, the recording is rife with “mouth sounds” that are so irritating it makes listening unpleasant.

Very different than my usual, but I fell in love with the characters

It took me a while to understand the time frame and characters, but eventually fell in love with them and the series

Interesting storyline, slightly annoying narration.

Each of Lindsey Davis’ books send me to the internet to look up Wikipedia entries or videos on Ancient Rome so that I can further explore her real characters, events or locations. The Third Nero was no exception and I found the plot interesting and exciting.
The narration by Lucy Brown is very good but I was continually distracted by how “juicy” her voice sounded. It was like listening to an ASMR recording.

Enjoyable story

I enjoyed the story with the twists and turns. It was a little dry in places but picked up with a new angle or twist to draw my interest back.

I like this series but prefer the original.

I like this series but I think the reason I prefer the older series is actually the side characters. Helena was a much better foil than the protagonists husband, I liked Falco's friend in the city guards, and while the protagonist is not entirely alone she feels somewhat more withdrawn to me.

Best in this series so far

Relations between Rome and the Parthian empire provide a fascinating historical background for this novel. While still offering many details about Roman life and architecture, the complicated story makes for a very interesting mystery that is full of twists and turns