Fading interest för Albia

Listening to Lindsey Davis or for that matter Donna Leone is to me a question of combining a good who done it read with getting the flavor and the living experience of ancient Rome (or today's Venice). By creating her other hero Albia, Lindsay is now somehow reusing the story of Falco and getting a female informer where she can comment on the world of men from a female perspective. In this book, though, she somehow has performed below par, measured against her considerable talents. The who done it story was too thin and becoming apparent much to early (something usually not happening to me). When the description of Rome somehow becomes more like a readout of historical maps without a sense of place and presence half the value of the read gets lost. Furthermore, when the cultural description of ancient Rome deviates from historical facts and increasingly becomes a commentary of modern mores, especially between genders, I get irritated. I am sure Flavia Albia would be astonished by a Roman world where she more or less could work in her line of trade, in the manner she is doing. So it becomes a boring, uninspiring and unrealistic read. I will now take a pause from Flavia Albia, maybe Rome is now fading away.

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