Lindsey Davis

Last Updated on January 9th, 2019

Lindsey Davis is a historical mystery author probably best known for her
Marcus Didius Falco series. Although the series ended in 2009, there are 20 books that lovers of the genre and newcomers to this author will enjoy reading.

The newer Lindsey Davis books focus on the Flavia Albia historical mystery series set in Ancient Rome.

Here are the Lindsey Davis books in order for her two popular series and several standalone novels written so far. The book list is updated with new stories as they come.

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New Lindsey Davis Books

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Marcus Didius Falco Series

1. The Silver Pigs, 1989
2. Shadows in Bronze, 1990
3. Venus in Copper, 1991
4. The Iron Hand of Mars, 1992
5. Poseidon’s Gold, 1993
6. Last Act in Palmyra, 1994
7. Time to Depart, 1995
8. A Dying Light in Corduba, 1996
9. Three Hands in the Fountain, 1997
10. Two for the Lions, 1998
11. One Virgin Too Many, 1999
12. Ode to a Banker, 2000
13. A Body in the Bath House, 2001
14. The Jupiter Myth, 2002
15. The Accusers, 2003
16. Scandal Takes a Holiday, 2004
17. See Delphi and Die, 2005
18. Saturnalia, 2007
19. Alexandria, 2009
20. Nemesis, 2009

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Flavia Albia Mystery Series

1. The Ides of April, 2013
2. Enemies at Home, 2014
3. The Spook Who Spoke Again, 2015 (short novella)
4. Deadly Election, 2015
5. The Graveyard of the Hesperides, 2016
6. The Third Nero, 2017
7. Pandora’s Boy, 2018
8. The Black Banquet, 2019 (novella)
9. A Capitol Death, 2019

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Standalone Lindsey Davis Books

• The Course of Honour, 1997
• Rebels and Traitors, 2009
• Master and God, 2012
• Vesuvius by Night, 2017 (novella)

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Lindsey Davis Biography

Lindsey Davis was born in 1949 in Birmingham, UK, where she also grew up. She attended Oxford University from where he received her degree in English Language and Literature.

Next, she started working as a civil servant, a role which she had for 13 years. She left the job in 1985 and started writing her first book, a romantic serial for the  Woman’s Realm magazine.

In an interview, she mentioned that she always liked to read historical novels as a child, so it was natural that she would end up writing historical books as well.

The first real book she wrote was The Course of Honor, however, she only published it after she became famous for her Marcus Didius Falco series, in 1997. The book described the love between Emperor Vespasian and his mistress Antonia Caenis, which led the author to research that historical time period in details.

Her research led her to write The Silver Pigs, which would become the first book in her popular Marcus Didius Falco, a guy in his 40s who is a private eye in very ancient times. Starting from very meager means, Falco eventually went up in the world and started his own brand of detective agency in ancient Rome.

When Lindsey Davis wrote Master and God, a standalone novel, was her entrance to the new series about Flavia Albia, who is Falco’s own adopted daughter. In the Falco series, Flavia was just a side character, but over the course of several books, she became an important part of the story, and the author felt that she needed her own series to find her own voice. She became the best choice for a Falco spin-off series.

In writing her books, Lindsey Davis does a lot of research and has been doing for the last 30 years. She uses many primary and secondary sources, including general informational magazine articles, along with specific maps and encyclopedias about the ancient Roman times depicted in the books.

From the time of her first published novel, Lindsey Davis is priding herself in having written a story every single year.

Several of the Lindsey Davis books earner the author awards, including the Authors’ Club Best First Novel for The Silver Pigs, the Crimewriters’ Association Dagger in the Library and Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the Sherlock Award for Best Comic Detective for her Falco character, the Premio Colosseo Award, the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, and the Barcelona Historical Novel Prize, which is a big deal since it was the first time the Barcelona award was ever given, being in its first year.

The Lindsey Davis novels have been translated into several languages and they are published both in the UK and US. Some of the early Falco novels were dramatized by BBC Radio 4.

Pandora’s Boy is quite modern in its storyline, touching on issues like occultism, organized crime and gangsters, divorce, and murder. While the book deals again with solving a new murder, the whole series is so much more than that. Many people enjoy the series for its interesting portrayal of the Roman society and lifestyle mostly among the young and the women.

The previous books, for example, The Third Nero, is more a spy thriller than a crime mystery where Flavia is working for a local government she doesn’t care about.

All the Lindsey Davis books are perennial in their stories and the author’s take on happenings. At their bare, many of the cases Flavia works on could be equally set in modern times.

The Lindsey Davis book list is worth reading in chronological and publication order for both the author’s series. Do start with Falco first and then move on to Flavia. You will have countless hours of joyful reading.

Praise for Lindsey Davis

Davis makes Rome live. (Washington Post Book World)

Davis’s characterisation is memorable and her dialogue sharp. … Superbly lively and fast-paced. (Historical Novel Society)

Entertaining . . . Davis . . . does her usual smooth job of educating readers with historical tidbits (Publishers Weekly)

Lindsey Davis doesn’t just bring Rome to life—she brings Rome to life better than anyone else ever has. (Detroit Free Press)

Lindsey Davis has seen off all her competitors to become the unassailable market leader in the ‘crime in Ancient Rome’ genre . . . Davis’s squalid, vibrant Rome is as pleasurable as ever (Guardian)

Davis’s books crackle with wit and knowledge. She has the happy knack of making the reader feel entirely immersed in Rome. (The Times)

Davis is adept at convincing us that her hero’s anachronistically modern sensibility sits persuasively in ancient Rome (Barry Forshaw)

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