Book Review: The Graveyard of the Hesperides by Lindsey Davis, Historical Crime Fiction

Have you ever compiled a fantasy dinner list? Top of mine would be Flavia Albia, the indomitable informer who uncovers all sorts of nefarious ongoings in Ancient Rome. Coming from Britain, she has the objectivity and observational skills of an outsider and having experienced real suffering as a child, she is under no illusions about human nature. Smart and perceptive, she is at home in all walks of life – which is just as well as in this case her investigations take her to a dangerous neighbourhood.


 ‘The Graveyard of the Hesperides’ is the courtyard of a seedy bar where a number of bones are discovered during renovation work. The task of uncovering the identity of the skeletons and who was responsible for putting them there falls to Flavia Albia.

Her independence and outlook are more modern than you might expect of a woman in Imperial Rome, but the setting created by the author Lindsey Davis smacks of authenticity. There is no better way of immersing yourself in the daily life of ordinary Romans than tracking Flavia Albia through the grimy, smelly streets of Rome as she deals with bar tenders, prostitutes, reclaimed marble installers, abortionists, animal sacrificers, and a host of other colourful characters, many of them related in one way or another. Time and time again Flavia Albia comes up against a conspiracy of silence, lies or deliberate memory loss.

It takes a confident and strong man to win the affections of a woman as independent and spirited as Flavia Albia, and the magistrate Manlius Faustus is just such a man. Will his determination to marry her by way of a traditional wedding ceremony work out?  How will she deal with the conflicting demands of her love life and her job and will she be able to find the perpetrator of these grisly murders?

‘The Graveyard of the Hesperides’ is the fourth Flavia Albia book written by Lindsey Davis, winner of the CWA Historical Dagger among other honours. In 2011 she was awarded the CSA Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement.

Published by Hodder & Stoughton in Hardback on April 14^th 2016, priced at £18.99.