Sunday, March 19, 2006

#22: The Jupiter Myth -- Lindsay Davies

I used to be a great fan of Lindsay Davies' Falco novels: read and reread The Silver Pigs until it fell apart, bought the next five or six as soon as they appeared, et cetera. Then, some time around Last Act at Palmyra, I fell out of love. Later novels in the series felt formulaic, and the characters themselves seemed to have settled into ruts. I stopped buying them some years ago.

Perhaps it was that the settings didn't really interest me. The Jupiter Myth is set in London -- in a London that I recognise from Doctor Keen's Patent Roman Walks -- and Falco's constant complaints about the weather became comfortably familiar, rather than hackneyed. The crime itself seemed more interesting to me than the endless tales of corruption that I recall from earlier books in the series. I was surprised to find that I recognised most of the original cast: that for multiple rereadings!

Off to dig out a batch of unread, or underappreciated, Davis novels. I think there are quite a few gaps in my collection ...

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