Few male or female writers reach the level of literary genre on their own. Lindsey davis es the genre writer of Ancient Rome. Said like that it sounds grandiose. But there is no other way to qualify or label this English writer whose fascination with the Roman Empire has become her work, her plot, her setting. It seems as if Lindsey Davis is a chronicler of the time embodied in her new role as a current writer.
Lindsey or the reincarnation of Tacitus, or Livy. Only, once freed from their historical commitment, these historians would have taken the will to make mystery literature based on the great enigmas that this great civilization ended up spreading in parallel with its language, science, customs, beliefs, mythology and even politics.
Around thirty books accompany a writer who has managed to make that great chronological leap from ancient Rome to the present day a fertile field where to investigate and also ramble, where to find arguments and pose enigmatic events.
A whole life dedicated to the work thanks to which he has gathered an incomparable wisdom and ability to make us present those days when Rome ruled over the entire known world.
Top 3 Recommended Novels by Lindsey Davis
The cemetery of the Hesperides
His latest novel published in Spain, the penultimate of the Flavia Albia series takes us into the underworld of the most popular and dark Rome.
The Hesperides were nymphs from Greek mythology who guarded a dazzling garden that appeared like an oasis in North Africa.
In this book, the supposed garden becomes what the title already announces: a cemetery. Flavia Albia, daughter of Marco Didio Falco, star character of this author, participates in the discovery of the body of a young innkeeper who died some time ago.
Despite the fact that Flavia could ignore the discovery to continue giving herself to her comfortable life with Manlio Fausto, with whom she plans to marry, the truth is that the appearance of the corpse ends up touching a sensitive chord that prompts her to know more about the ill-fated young man who was roughly buried in the garden.
From her powerful social stratum, Flavia leads herself through the infernal spaces of the deepest Rome, where people savor the bitter moral troubles of their destinies. It is then when the author shows off her vast knowledge of this historical period to lavish on details as fascinating as they are rugged, of a reality that undoubtedly accompanied the deepest life of the imperial city.
Dinky canteens where women begged for sex for survival, where violence became law and existence could only come about through pacts with the devil, the only one who seemed to establish some kind of pattern in that underworld.
Flavia faces the fragility of life. And despite the fact that the easiest, natural and proper thing would be to return with her loved ones, to that world of light, entertainment and good manners, she ends up discovering that something links her to that remote space of perdition. It only remains for him to entrust himself to the gods so as not to end up succumbing in that underworld.
A conspiracy in Hispania
Perhaps it is not, strictly literary, one of the best works of the author. But the fact of developing in Hispania always has its appeal for every reader of this old "Land of rabbits" (Hispania translation more adjusted to reality according to my old History teacher)
In Spain we are very olive groves from where we can get great olives and divine oils. A very precious commodity. So when a soldier of the Emperor Vespasian is dead and his murder is associated with the gold ingredient market, Marco embarks on an investigation that leads him irretrievably to Corduba. As we can imagine, interests, corruption, power ..., make up a stimulating story about customs, idiosyncrasies, nature of the human being.
A wonderfully outlined setting by Lindsey, able thanks to her knowledge of the historical period, to briefly describe to really show it all ...
Marco, accompanied by Helena Justina, will face many dangers and difficult personal decisions. An entertaining novel with a double thread in its plot that ends up being knit together wonderfully. This is the eighth installment of the Marco Didio Falco series.
Nemesis
With this XNUMXth installment of the Marco Didio Falco series, the author closed the most acclaimed of her series. It should not be easy to spot that finalist intention without considering the final round work, the full stop that satisfies so many followers. But Lindsey did it.
He gave this latest Marco and Helena adventure more violence, large doses of humor and irony, as well as a display in the characterization and in the psyche of some characters that become so strangely close despite the temporal distance ...
In short, a more than interesting work that takes as its central axis a Frame on which the plot is completely developed. The personal circumstances of this particular hero of antiquity serve for us to know him in the most personal way, so that this vibrant character leaves us with a completely glorious final taste in the discovery of his essence and the fight against his nemesis.
