Desperate Undertaking by Lindsey Davis

I loved the setting of Desperate Undertaking: Rome, the fabled city, full of life and people and drama. The city felt starkly tangible: not the home of ancient relics, but rather a lively, bustling town. I love a historical novel that doesn’t sanitize the history: there are affairs, drunken idiots, incompetent police, and an absurd amount of bureaucracy.

And of, course, crime. The murders in this mystery were unjustifiably brutal: gory, disturbing, horrific. Absolutely not my typical type of read. But I picked this book up on a whim, so you know me, I had to finish it! I was immediately taken with the mystery of the undertaker: was it solved in a way I could’ve put together via the clues? Absolutely not. In fact, many people say explicitly that the person who was the undertaker was not. As a reader, that’s rather disappointing (I’d at least like to have a chance!!), but also it makes sense given the structure of the story. And I do like how the character of young Sorgius manages to be useful.

The characters were fascinating: I like, as with any mystery, an intrepid woman Flavia Alba with plenty of moxy (maybe I should start coming up with some kind of moxy-meter or scale to rate these detectives) who isn’t afraid to criticize the misogyny of Rome. I’d like to say also that I appreciate the historical accuracy of this novel, but I truly have no idea how accurate or not it is. I’ve never been one for Roman history (clearly I’m not one of those guys, who is always thinking about the Roman Empire or whatever).

I liked how cunning yet cautious Albia is. I hate to see my intrepid young women put themselves at risk due to poor or rash decision making! I much preferred her style. Yes, my girl saw some action. But she was not so reckless to almost die. This was a borderline cozy read (but again the gore was NOT COZY, merely the action didn’t make my heart pound).

It was compelling, it was interesting, but I don’t know if this was my favorite. I missed a lot of lore (both from the previous novels and from the references to plays myths etc), but broadly I found it enjoyable. Time now for me to read on into greener, happier pastures, where no one gets mauled to death or crucified.