A Dying Light in Corduba, Lindsey Davis
A Dying Light in Corduba, Lindsey Davis
List: $22.95 | Sale: $16.07
Club: $11.47

A Dying Light in Corduba
A Marcus Didius Falco Mystery

Author: Lindsey Davis

Narrator: Simon Prebble

Unabridged: 12 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2016

Synopsis

In this eighth mystery featuring hard-boiled Roman PI Marcus Didius Falco, Davis creates a chiaroscuro world of evil plots and dark humor, as olive oil whets a villain’s appetite for power and his taste for murder.Surprisingly, nobody is poisoned at the Society of Olive Oil Producers banquet—the attempted murder of Rome’s chief spy occurs immediately afterward. Suspicion falls, quick as the Italian night, on the dinner’s sinuous dancer, a lady who has already left for Corduba, Spain. Naturally, Marcus Didius Falco, the Philip Marlowe of Roman detectives, is dispatched to follow her. But he has pledged to stay with Helena, his pregnant, patrician wife, until she gives birth. Caught between Scylla and Charybdis, Falco makes what may be a fatal mistake: he brings Helena with him to a terra incognita of olives and intrigue, where a dies irae and a remorseless killer wait.

About Lindsey Davis

Lindsey Davis is an English novelist of historical fiction and best known for her award-winning historical crime stories set in ancient Rome and its empire, the acclaimed Marcus Didius Falco series and the Flavia Albia series. Her novels have won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers’ Association Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award and in 2011 the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association for lifetime achievement. Born and raised in Birmingham, England, she read English at Oxford and worked for the civil service for thirteen years before becoming a writer.

About Simon Prebble

Simon Prebble, a British-born performer, is a stage and television actor and veteran narrator of some three hundred audiobooks. As one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices, he has received thirty-seven Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie in 2010. He lives in New York.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Clemens on October 09, 2021

**Should Read as 4.5 Stars!** Read this book in 2013, and its the 8th volume of the wonderful Marcus Didius Falco series. This tale is set at first in Spain, with Falco, his now Patrician wife, Helena Justina, Falco's brother-in-law, Aelianus, and not to forget, Anacrites, the Imperial Chief Spy, at a......more

Goodreads review by aPriL does feral sometimes on December 27, 2016

'A Dying Light in Corduba', #8 in the Marcus Didius Falco detective series, is an overcomplicated plot involving Roman and Baetican (Spanish) politicians scheming to monopolize the olive oil market. I was not convinced despite the complexity - it was a Rube Goldberg device from beginning to end. Oh......more

Goodreads review by Assaph on December 12, 2017

Back on the road, Falco travels to Spain and explores the all-important Olive Oil trade across the Roman empire. (And if you think for a moment that ancient trade was not a global phenomenon on a vast scale, look up Monte Testaccio). Expect a convoluted plot encompassing politicians and money, as we......more

Goodreads review by Scot on December 28, 2009

Eighth in the series. The plot grows rather convoluted, working through layers upon layers of misinformation and double dealing as the ruling Roman bureacracy, with myriad counterproductive agencies and factions, confronts the possible formation of an economic cartel to control the increasingly lucr......more

Goodreads review by Les on March 02, 2022

Helena Justina is due to give birth, Marcus Didius Falco and she set off to unravel an oily conspiracy in southern Spain. Although the books can be read individually it’s better read them in order to follow the relationship between Falco and Helena......more

Quotes

“Another of her witty and always enjoyable mysteries.” Washington Post

“Brilliant…witty…[will] keep readers fully amused and entertained.” Chicago Sun-Times

“The eighth in Lindsey Davis’ excellent and funny series…a cross between I, Claudius and Mystery!” Rocky Mountain News (Denver)

“A fascinating peek at everyday life in the colonial Roman empire, and the usual loopy cast of eccentrics that make Lindsey Davis novels such fun.” Detroit Free Press

“[A] fast-moving narrative that makes ancient Rome feel as real as the streets of New York or LA.” Publishers Weekly

“Solid detail and vivid insights that bring ancient Rome alive. But the plotting, though leisurely, is nicely suspenseful and the ending worth the wait.” Library Journal

“Falco, the informer-cum-sleuth who navigates the corrupt political waters of the Roman Empire with an appealing mix of integrity and self-interest, is just hip enough for the room; he wears his cynicism like a raincoat, but he won’t be confused with Sam Spade at a toga party…Fascinating details about the olive-oil market lubricate the plot nicely, while Falco and Helena’s bantering about the baby-to-be evoke Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt on Mad about You.” Booklist

“With the passing of Ellis Peters, the title Queen of the Historical Whodunit is temporarily vacant. Lindsey Davis is well suited to assume it, and she is funnier than Peters…Davis’ books make old Rome sound fun…it is all so enjoyable.” Times (London) on the author

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List