A Capital Death by Lindsey Davis, Book Review

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Nobody brings ancient Romans to life like Lindsey Davis. I love her forgetful witnesses, dodgy tavern keepers, incompetent house slaves, shady temple augurs, corrupt Imperial transport managers, nosy housewives, hapless or brutal Praetorians, and finally, hard put-upon informers like Flavia Alba. 

Just when I thought I knew all there was to life in ancient Rome, Lindsey Davis introduces new topics such as the Imperial Triumph Procession and the people who produce the exorbitantly expensive purple dye for colouring the emperor’s special robes. I knew a bit about the Murex sea sails of which you needed hundreds of thousands to make a useful quantity of dye, but I didn’t know that the process would be so stinky and smelly. Crime fiction in 3 D, that’s what you get when you walk down a Roman street with Flavia Alba, or just Alba to her friends. 

And not every mystery, not even one set in ancient Rome can feature a murder which involves being pushed over the Tarpeian Rock! That’s a rocky mound in the centre of Rome, high enough that if you fall down it, you don’t get up again, at least not on your own accord. Being an informer can be a dangerous business.

This is the seventh book in the series, which follows the exploits of Flavia Alba, the adoptive daughter of Falco, the hero of the previous series by Lindsey Davis. If you love historical crime fiction, then there is no better place to start than to befriend Alba.

Published in 2019 by Hodder & Stoughton in hardback, £20.00

(Toria Forsyth-Moser)

You can buy your copy here on Amazon