Saturnalia: A Marcus Didius Falco Novel

by: Lindsey Davis

Published by: St. Martin's

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

Saturnalia is the eighteenth Falco novel, and one of the best.

Marcus Didius Falco is an informer for hire, a spy, in Rome. This novel takes place in A.D. 76 under Vespasian, during Saturnalia, the wildly popular seven-day celebration on the winter solstice. Saturnalia involves the giving of gifts, family banquets, the transposing of master/slave roles, civic celebrations at the temple of Saturn, including a banquet for the people, and silly drunken behavior including the wearing of humorous costumes.

This festival is the setting for a very difficult and sensitive case, where Falco and his chief spy rival, Anacrites, are given the same assignment—find the missing German freedom fighter, Veleda. She had been captured and was kept in pampered captivity in the house of a Senator, but then a man is murdered and decapitated, and she and her servant Ganna both disappear. Veleda had overheard that her fate was to be part of a “triumph” for the general that captured her, a triumph involving her very public death.

This is the same Veleda who had five years before saved the lives of Marcus and his brother-in-law Justinus, who had fallen in love with her. Falco and his wife Helena, her family, and Petronius of the vigiles (sort of a cross between firemen and police) help with the search, along with some of the Legion who had been in Germany and might recognize her. Worse, the public cannot know of the missing woman (it might make the government look bad); and Justinus, now a married man with a child and a very jealous wife, disappears as well. Several odd doctors are in this tale with a wide variety of unusual medical practices.

Davis’ ability to bring these fascinating characters, locales, cultures, and celebrations to life is nothing short of magical. All classes people her novel: nobility, senators, slaves, traders, soldiers, and homeless escaped slaves trying to survive on the fringes of society.

Armchair Interviews says: Great story for who love stories set in ancient times.

Author’s Web site: http://www.lindseydavis.co.uk