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THE ACCUSERS
by Lindsey Davis
Century, June 2003
320 pages
16.99GBP
ISBN: 0712625569


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This story could be called "Dishonor Among Informers," because professional informers, who made their living from the forfeited fortunes of Romans they accused of un-Roman conduct, are all over the pages. As Falco himself admits, "All informers are said to be vile collaborators, currying favour, contributing to repression, profiteering, targeting victims, and working the courts for their personal advantage." Of course, Falco himself is a professional informer, but in his case we're to understand that he, even as an occasional used car dealer today, may be an exception to the rule characterizing his vocation.

Falco gets caught between two powerful informers, Silius and Paccius, ex-consuls no less, who are adversaries in a case where the defendant, Metellus, a senator, is accused of abuse of office. Falco's "firm," consisting mainly of himself and two brothers-in-law, is hired for a minor task of obtaining a loan document. Metellus is found guilty with a huge financial penalty. Then he dies. Silius, the accuser, now hires Falco to prove that Metellus did not commit suicide, but was murdered.

You see, Silius could still collect the money from Metellus's estate if he had been murdered. But he would get nothing if Metellus had taken the Roman honorable way out by committing suicide. Of course, it was always possible that one or more members of Metellus's family, not wanting to see all their money go to Silius, might have done the honorable thing on Metellus's behalf by killing him, especially since Metellus himself was not considered any too honorable in the first place.

Accusations fly back and forth as Falco investigates. One of Silius's high-born informer subordinates, Honorius, perhaps encouraged by his name, leaves Silius to join Falco, saying he felt it was the honorable thing to do. Following the trail of Falco, we are plunged into a vortex of disreputable and slightly reputable family members and in-laws, slaves, herbalists, a funeral director, professional mourners, funeral clowns, a fortune teller, a wetnurse, a banker, and so on. Especially in this novel we see an unusually large gamut of Romans from top to bottom.

Thank God for Lindsey Davis and Falco. When it comes to mysteries, the Falco series never ceases to give one a relaxing read. We can be enthralled by Davis's attention to historical detail while we chuckle at the all-too-modern antics of Falco, who shows us, not how much the Romans are like us, but how much we are in many ways like our Roman ancestors.

Davis navigates successfully between avoiding both the Scylla of yesterday's political correctness and the Charybdis of today's political correctness. Not for her having everything in perfect conformity with canonical Christian dogma, as was de rigueur in past novels such as QUO VADIS, BEN HUR, and THE ROBE (in THE ACCUSERS, there appear no Christians and the only people on hand to be threatened with being fed to the lions are murderers).

But neither does she have her good guys act like 20th-21st century activists, as we see in many very unrealistic historical novels. When in accordance with Roman law concerning the household slaves of a murdered man, Metellus's slaves are subjected to torture, Falco accepts the fact with nonchalance. As much as we are like our ancestors, we are not photocopies of them, and Davis's talent skillfully differentiates between attitudes of then and now by having her characters act realistically for their times.

One interesting thing -- not an error, just a curiosity -- is an unusual author/protagonist aside that has Falco addressing the reader: "You may assume that sympathetic comment came from Helena and the harsh judgement from me. Wrong!" Falco as the narrator is continually talking to the reader throughout the book, but this is the first time I can recall that he has been so direct as to address the reader as "You."

Anyone who is already a Falco fan doesn't need encouragement from me to read this latest offering of Falco's adventures. To those who have not read any of the Falco series, try it, you'll probably like it. Where to start? It's true that Falco books present a continuing development of his life, but it is definitely not necessary to start at the beginning. Try this one and then go back and read some of the earlier ones. Note that each one painlessly increases your knowledge of one or more aspects of life in ancient Rome: the courts, provincial life, the social structure, the banking and book publishing industries, the conspiracies against the government, and so on. All are fascinating.

Two notes of general interest: On her Web site Lindsey Davis mentions that BBC, which had taken an option on Falco stories, has let the option expire. The loss is both theirs and ours. I know of only one TV movie so far based on Falco, titled The Age of Treason, which my wife and I have enjoyed enough to watch more than one or two times.

My other note is that I understand Lindsey Davis will be the British Guest of Honor at the 2004 Bouchercon in Toronto. All the more reason for attending the next Bouchercon.

Reviewed by Eugene Aubrey Stratton, January 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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