I was so impressed when I re-read the first Falco book, 'The Silver Pigs', that I decided to re-read the next book in the series, 'Shadows In Bronze' immediately.

I'd read the book before, thirtyish years ago, but, unlike 'The Silver Pigs' I couldn't remember any of the details. In retrospect, I should have taken that as a warning.

I dived in with enthusiasm and enjoyed the opening scenes, which were vivid and crisp and full of action. My only frustration was that Gordon Griffin had been chosen as the narrator. He's a good narrator but, to me, he seemed too old and too officer-class to voice Falco. I much preferred Christian Rodska who gave Falco a finely judged working-class swagger tinged with humour.

The book started to flag pretty much as soon as Falco left Rome. It's hard to describe someone spending nine days hanging around a temple with only a goat for company and still keep things interesting. Falco briefly returned to Rome, although nothing much happened there and then headed out, slowly, to Naples, using his friend Petro and his family as cover. Again, nothing much happened. By now I was four and a half hours into a fifteen-hour audiobook and I realised that I was bored and disappointed

The plot and the people were meandering. There was a large cast of characters but I didn't get to know much about any of them. There was no tension at all, even though Falco is being hunted by a killer and has placed Petro's family in the firing line. Helena Justina barely appears in the first third of the book and her absence left a hole that Falco and his goat couldn't fill. Falco's humour runs thin when he spends so much time alone. It didn't help that Gordon Griffith didn't seem to be able to make the humour work very well.

At 466 pages, 'Shadows In Bronze' is over 30% longer than 'The Silver Pigs' and the story seems to have spread out to fill the available space. I think it would have benefitted from being edited down by a hundred pages or so.

I decided to set the book aside. I'll give it a few weeks and then try again with 'Venus In Copper', it's set in Rome and is only 366 pages, so I have hopes of a return to form.

full review here:

https://nordie.wordpress.com/2021/03/13/book-review-shadows-in-bronze-by-lindsey...

La estatua de bronce
Lindsey Davis
Publicado: 1990 | 473 páginas
Novela Histórico Intriga
Serie: Marco Didio Falco #2 /suRov2pa8_G4

Nueva entrega de las aventuras Marco Didio Falco en la Roma del emperador Vespasiano, en la cual queda expuesta de un modo fiel la vida cotidiana de la capital del Imperio. En la primavera del año 71 a. C., la vida discurre sin acontecimientos especiales para un hombre como Marco Didio Falco, si por no especiales entendemos asuntos tales como: deshacerse de algún que otro cadáver, seguir la pista de un complot contra el emperador o conseguir algún pequeño beneficio traficando con plomo robado. Pero el trabajo rutinario del más sarcástico y desengañado investigador de la Roma Imperial da un vuelco cuando el azar le pone sobre el rastro de Barnabas, un extraño personaje que parece tener algo personal contra Didio Falco.

I listened to the abridged BBC radio version of this book. In this installment, Falco helps Vespasian get rid of a dead body and then heads with Petronius to the Bay of Naples to begin an investigation into a failed coup and its members. Their investigation leads them to places frequented by those on holiday--Neapolis, Capreae and Pompeii. One of the conspirators is the former husband of Helena Justina whom Falco would like to get to know better. While this is still not my favorite series, the BBC abridgement made it more tolerable than the first installment. ( )

Picking up where the first book left off, Falco is cleaning up after a failed conspiracy against the emperor Vespasian. His tasks include taking an inventory of the villa of Gnaeus Atius Pertinax, one of the conspirators and ex-husband of Helena Justina, the out-of-reach love of Falco’s life. Vespasian is ready to make peace with the remaining conspirators, but someone is murdering them to prevent a reconciliation. As informer to Vespasian, Falco’s investigation takes him to Pompeii and Herculaneum in the company of his best pal, Petronius, and his family, and Falco’s nephew Larius.

Rome comes to life through the adventures of Falco and his comrades. Even though I loved the narrator of the first book, it was somewhat difficult to follow the story in the audio format. I read this one because the unabridged audio wasn’t available from my library, and I found it was easier to keep the characters straight when I could see their names in print. Falco’s cheeky personality was just as endearing in print. I look forward to seeing what Falco will get up to next. ( )