Ancient thrills made accessible to the modern reader (One Virgin Too Many - Lindsey Davis)

Name: Marland

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Product:	One Virgin Too Many - Lindsey Davis
Date:	12/05/01 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good plot and strong characters

Disadvantages: mix of modern and ancient could be confusing

This is the first Falco book that I have read. It took me a while to get into it as it is a curious mixture of ancient Rome with modern day attitude and expressions of language. The story was good and there was a little bit of a twist to the ending. There is already another excellent opinion that covers the story, but in case you haven’t read it I will give you an idea of the story line.

The story stands on it’s own, but is in fact the third in the 'Partners' trilogy. Marcus Didius Falco an ancient Roman informer has been awarded the position of ‘Procurator of Poultry for the Senate and People of Rome’. A six year old girl Gaia Laelia appears at Falco’s home asking for help but he doesn’t take her seriously.

Anacrites the brother of Falco’s girlfriend Helena stumbles over a body while attending celebrations of the sacred Arval Bretheren which he had hoped to become a member of. The murder is officially covered up. Meanwhile the young girl that had come to ask Falco’s help is discovered to be one of the main contenders for the position of new Vestal Virgin. Cloelia the daughter of Falco’s recently widowed sister has also been entered in the lottery for the vestal virgin vacancy.

The young girl disappears and understandably there are concerns for her safety. Falco takes on Arval as his partner and they investigate the disappearance of young Gaia Laelia, along the way discovering dark secrets of ancient ritual sects and family loyalties.

Perhaps it was my misfortune to all the time be comparing the book to the Brother Cadfael mysteries because they are also set in times of yore. In contrast the blend of modern with old while reading Falco distracted me from the story. All the time while reading about the different sects etc. of ancient Rome I was asking myself ‘ is this based on fact, or completely made up by the author?’ I think if you have some prior knowle
dge of Ancient Rome you may tend to get a little more out of the book.

The main hero is not what I would call PC, I keep expecting him to say ‘shagadelic baby’ at any moment, as he reminds me a little of a latter-day Austin Powers. Although he has a gorgeous young girlfriend, the mother of his child, every female apart from his mother is appraised with regard to her general appeal to men or in the case of very young females their estimated future appeal to men.

Once over the conundrum of what if anything was based on historical fact, and a little further into the story. I enjoyed the book and began to enjoy Lindsey Davis’ style. I look forward to reading the rest of her works, though maybe I’ll do a little research on the Roman empire first. I’d recommend this book to any detective fiction fan especially one that enjoys something that is a little bit out of the ordinary different.

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