The Silver Pigs

I'm not a big fan of murder in my mysteries but I do like the main character's sense of humour and the bits-n-pieces about Roman life, terminology, and culture.

As you probably know already, this is the start of a long series of Ancient Roman adventures starring Marcus Didius Falco (and, much later, his adopted daughter).

It gets off to a slightly awkward start: you can't really tell from the first chapter what sort of story you're letting yourself in for, or what kind of a person Falco is; some readers apparently give up at this stage and don't go any further. If you persevere, most of the story flows well and is quite gripping.

The best thing about it is the beginning of his relationship with Helena Justina, which is wonderful and not to be missed, especially if you've read any later books in this series. However, the two of them don't even meet until almost a third of the book has gone by, and then they take an initial dislike to each other.

Throughout this series, the details of daily life in the first century AD are well woven into the text, adding interest and atmosphere without becoming slow or tedious. Lindsey Davis has done her research, and the details are as accurate as she can make them.

The conspiracy of the silver pigs, which gives the book its title, is quite a neat fictional invention by the author (based on a real archæological clue), but it doesn't particularly appeal to me, subjectively: it's not something I read the book for.

There's plenty of humour in this book, but it's not exactly a comedy, and serious things happen. There's a rather disturbing murder of a character we've got to know somewhat, and our hero suffers various abuses and injuries from time to time; although he seems to have considerable powers of recovery.

In general, characterization is quite good, and I really like Helena Justina. Falco himself is a bit of a problem. The whole series is written in the first person, we see everything through his eyes, which means that we never see him properly, as other people see him. We get to know a lot about him, but he's not a character like the other characters: he's a point of view.

He scrapes a meagre living as an informer: a sort of low-grade freelance private detective. He lives in a cheap flat in a poor area and often fails to pay the rent on time. He conspicuously lacks wealth, status, and power. However, he tends to treat everyone as his equals, and men of greater wealth, status, and power (up to and including the Emperor Vespasian) puzzlingly often seem to tolerate this and take him seriously. Sometimes he gets disrespected and beaten up (which is what I'd expect); but more often he gets away with it, which I find somewhat implausible.

It could be explained if he has great personal charisma: force of personality. But I don't get that impression from the text; although it would be easier to judge if we could see him from someone else's point of view.

Marcus and Helena eventually have sex, repeatedly (although we don't get to watch; it's not that kind of book). Helena is a respectable senator's daughter, they're not married and can't even contemplate marriage at this stage, and they surely have to take the possibility of pregnancy very seriously. But the subject doesn't arise, they appear to ignore it, which seems odd.The next book in the series stops ignoring it, and we're told that some contraceptive techniques are used in the first century, but they're unreliable and not taken seriously by sensible people. Abortion is feasible, although probably somewhat hazardous.

There's a bit of a problem with any historical novel: if you include characters known to history, they move on rails: you can't alter known facts about them, unless you're writing alternative history, which is something else entirely. For instance, here we have Vespasian and his sons, Titus and Domitian: their characters, lifespans, and major events are fixed and can't be altered at the author's whim, although of course details can be invented.

What should you expect to get out of this book? It's an adequate detective story but not a great one. It's amusing in places. It gives you an intimate tour of Ancient Rome, plus a trip to Roman Britain. And it gives you the beginning of a nice love story, with comic as well as serious aspects. In later books in this series, we also get family life: Falco has a large extended family. But we don't see a lot of his family in this one, although his mother is unavoidable.