Lindsey Davis put an end to her popular Falco series after twenty books. Perhaps a brave decision; perhaps the right one. After all, everything comes to an end eventually. But it is possibly even braver to take one of the characters from that series as the lead in a new one.
Flavia Albia is the adopted daughter of Falco and Helena Justina. Rescued from the streets of Londinium as a child, she features in many of the Falco books, but almost in passing until the last few, where we see her – still briefly – become more than one of their children. Her back story was interesting; it gives her a difference. Yes, she is very ‘Roman’ now, but she is also very aware of her origins. Grateful to her adoptive parents, but still with something of an outsider’s view.
This first book in the series opens about ten years after the end of the Falco series. Albia is in her late twenties, and a widow (having married one of the minor characters in the earlier books). She is fiercely independent, still living alone in her father’s old building at Fountain Court, and also working as an informer. Being a woman, this is a difficult task, as she is restricted in what she can do, and who will employ her.
After a client dies mysteriously, she discovers that there have been a number of unexplained deaths in the city. But the authorities do not seem very interested, and Albia herself is distracted by a potential new lover, Andronicus.
The killer continues to take victims. Albia, aided – and sometimes hindered – by others, tries to make sense of what is going on. She doesn’t get much help; the vigiles are their usual useless selves, and the local magistrate is busy organising an important annual festival. She can never actually find the man, only his rather heavy-handed messenger.
Taking a character from a book and making them the centre of their own story is often fraught with danger. It’s happened many times before, not always successfully. But here Lindsey Davis seems to have pulled it off; at least for the first book.
Flavia Albia is not Falco in a dress. Clearly, her style has a part of him in its make-up. She has learnt much from him, and from her mother. But she is very much her own woman. The character Davis creates is engaging. Setting the story sometime after we last met the family is inspired. It means that although we knew her from the earlier books, there is much for us to learn about events in the intervening years. And Davis is very careful to only let those details emerge slowly.
The story centres on Albia. Her family are mentioned in passing; she visits them, but without taking us. Falco and Helena are a presence, but no more than her family would be if we didn’t already know them. That decision – to place them firmly to one side – is also the correct one, I think.
The humour is still very much there. In fact on this outing, I think it is sometimes better than Falco’s; more cutting, often darker. She has spent the best part of ten years working at a profession that is hard enough, and disdained enough, for a man. Her gender simply makes life even more difficult. But it does give her some advantages, and she uses them to the full.
For me, some of the later Falco books became a little tired, somewhat formulaic. This first entry in the Flavia Albia series reminds me of the sparkle and enjoyment of some of the best in the original series. Perhaps writing them has given the author a new lease of life. I loved it, and am very much looking forward to the next in the series.
This is a review of the Hodder & Stoughton 2013 Kindle edition.
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