The Bottom Line
If you don't want to start at the beginning of Lindsey Davis' Roman mysteries, with the metal books, Saturnalia would be a good entry point to the Falco the informer series.
Because the 18th in the Falco series is set amid Saturnalia revelry, Saturnalia is an especially entertaining work of historical fiction featuring the informer Falco and his eccentric, extended family. While it is a murder mystery, and includes the solution to a puzzling decapitation, this is more the frame than the central plot. Watch out for the root vegetables!
Pros
- Non-formulaic mystery plot
- Saturnalia merriment makes the story especially entertaining
- Lindsey Davis' characters are, as usual, wonderful
Cons
- Lindsey Davis' attempt at a cast of characters is incomplete and hard to use
Description
- Chief Spy Anacrites and Informer Falco are in a race to retrieve a missing prisoner.
- The prisoner, a priestess, has contracted a serious fever while in Rome.
- The family of her warden is composed of hypochondriacs served by doctors from all the competing medical schools.
- Cataract surgery is performed and trepanning discussed as a treatment option.
- Lindsey Davis creates a exciting picture of what could have happened at Saturnalia.
- A spooky ghost flits about a cemetery and as a holiday entertainer.
- This and all historical fiction should not be taken as presenting a literally accurate historical tableau.
- Hysterical vegetable prank.
Guide Review - Saturnalia, by Lindsey Davis
When Veleda, a barbarian "virgin" priestess and prisoner from Germania escapes her comfortable confinement at the home of a wealthy hypochondriac during the commotion following his brother-in-law's decapitation, the Roman emperor's son seeks Falco's help in recovering the barbarian. Falco is connected because the priestess gave him help while in Germania and because Falco's brother-in-law, Justinus, had had an affair with her. Falco's wife's family wants Falco to find their missing Justinus because he appears to have run away with Veleda. So Falco must hunt for two people. To further complicate his life, Falco is in a race with his arch-rival, the Chief Spy Anacrites. Falco uses the help of the Praetorians and the legionaries stationed with him for the holiday to search for the missing priestess, solve the decapitation mystery, and reconcile Justinus with his secretly pregnant, very openly furious, too-wealthy-to-divorce wife Claudia -- all before the end of Saturnalia.
