The Graveyard Of The Hesperides – Lindsey Davis

A GREAT pleasure of my summer holiday for the past two decades has been reading the latest Ancient Roman murder mystery by Lindsey Davis.

Always thoroughly entertaining, first with laconic private detective Marcus Didius Falco and in the past four novels his feisty niece Flavia Albia .

This time it wasn’t just the setting – a poolside in Crete during my first foreign resort holiday in 20 years – that made the new novel so special.

Davis has excelled herself with a story that presents a bewitching love story amidst the usual death and danger.

I really didn’t want this book to end, as Flavia risked her life to solve a complex cold case right up to – and during – her wedding to dashing magistrate Manlius Faustus.

Flavia is intelligent, independent and daring, and despite herself is thoroughly besotted with Manlius, making for a match that’s both believable and admirable.

Hesperides of the title is a rundown bar in a seedy part of town where Manlius, who inherited his father’s building firm, is working on renovations.

The workmen turn up a woman’s bones, and Flavia can’t resist an investigation into whether she’s the waitress who went missing one night years before.

More bodies will be uncovered, and long-dead secrets exposed, as Flavia tries to juggle bridal responsibilities – most notably unwelcome guests and wedding-planning younger sisters -- with dangerous interviews with members of the local underworld.

Protection rackets, prostitution, gambling and wedding bouquets are just some of the perils facing our delightful heroine.

The plot is labyrinthine, the characters a joy, the prose terrific, in a story that’s light-hearted, often quite funny, but in true Davis style shot through with moments of darkness.

David Knights