Reading: The Silver Pigs
Aug. 24th, 2018 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
white_hartI read Lindsey Davis's The Silver Pigs years ago, because someone had recommended the Falco novels, and I quite liked the mix of hardboiled private eye and Ancient Rome, but not quite enough to shell out full price for new copies of the rest of the series, given just how many there were. Instead, I thought I'd just look out for second-hand copies, but the next one I found was the eleventh in the series and it rapidly became obvious that this was a series which really needed to be read in order if I was to have any hope of keeping track of the character development, and as I never seemed to find any of the earlier books I more or less gave up on the series.
A month or so ago, though, I was browsing in the Oxfam bookshop at lunchtime and found that they had almost a full set on offer, including pretty much everything up to book 10. So, obviously, I bought them all (a bargain at only £26 for 13 books), and then I thought that perhaps I'd better re-read The Silver Pigs before starting on the rest. At this point I discovered that the copy of The Silver Pigs I had definitely owned once upon a time was no longer anywhere to be found (I can only think that I had given up on ever find the next one and may have selected it when trying to find things I could bear to take to a book swap), so I had to order another one before I could re-read it.
My impression on re-reading was much the same as my first impression; it's a fun read which combines a pacy mystery plot (twisty and complicated enough that despite having read the book before I couldn't remember whodunnit) with a very thoroughly researched historical setting, snappy dialogue and likeable characters. Falco is an entertaining, self-aware narrator and his friends, family and associates are also engagingly drawn. I'm looking forward to working my way through the rest of the series.
A month or so ago, though, I was browsing in the Oxfam bookshop at lunchtime and found that they had almost a full set on offer, including pretty much everything up to book 10. So, obviously, I bought them all (a bargain at only £26 for 13 books), and then I thought that perhaps I'd better re-read The Silver Pigs before starting on the rest. At this point I discovered that the copy of The Silver Pigs I had definitely owned once upon a time was no longer anywhere to be found (I can only think that I had given up on ever find the next one and may have selected it when trying to find things I could bear to take to a book swap), so I had to order another one before I could re-read it.
My impression on re-reading was much the same as my first impression; it's a fun read which combines a pacy mystery plot (twisty and complicated enough that despite having read the book before I couldn't remember whodunnit) with a very thoroughly researched historical setting, snappy dialogue and likeable characters. Falco is an entertaining, self-aware narrator and his friends, family and associates are also engagingly drawn. I'm looking forward to working my way through the rest of the series.
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Date: 2018-08-24 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-24 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-29 01:48 pm (UTC)I read the first and possibly the second, then encountered a few others out of order. I think you really do need to start in the right place but I'd be interested to hear whether you think reading the rest strictly in order would make a lot of difference. Like you, I found them pleasant but not quite riveting enough to pursue with vigour, but if reading them in order would improve them noticeably I might try re-reading.