Enemies at Home: A Flavia Albia Novel: 2 (Flavia Albia Series, 2) Paperback – Import, 16 June 2015

Whilst I spotted the murderer fairly early in the first Flavia Albia book this was a lot more taxing, not that that is particularly important. The characters are further developed from the first novel and the author cleverly describes Rome and the culture through the eyes of an outsider. The status of slaves revealed in this novel, something I didn't know much about before, was fascinating - and horrible. An excellent read.

This is the second book in the series Lindsey Davis has created featuring Flavia Albia, the adopted daughter of her earlier hero, Falco. The first book firmly established Albia in her own right; smart, determined, and fiercely independent.Hardly has she recovered from the professional and personal issues surrounding her last case, when she is called in to investigate two deaths. A newly married couple have been found dead in their bed. Immediately afterwards, most of their household slaves claim sanctuary in a local temple. The local magistrate - who Albia encountered in the first book - asks her to look into what happened.This makes for an interesting story. The laws around slaves who may have been involved in the death of their master or mistress were straightforward; and brutal. Designed for practical reasons - from the owners' point of view - to prevent such an event happening. But it meant that slaves had no way of defending themselves; evidence from a slave was only valid if it had been obtained under torture.Albia therefore has to work on two levels. Try to unravel the lives of the victims, their friends and their free household members. Then try to work out what the slaves fear and why they didn't defend their master and mistress during the attack that killed them.There are a lot of characters involved in this story. The victims have a number of friends and relations who might have benefitted from their deaths. And the slaves are a very mixed bunch; the newlyweds were in the process of merging their households, and everyone knew that meant some of the slaves would be surplus to requirements. The final element in the mix is the local crime family, who may - or may not - have been involved.To make life easy for herself, Albia moves temporarily into the house of the victims, along with Dromo, a slave of the magistrate, who is there for her protection. He is ever present through the rest of the story; useless, but dependable in his own way. He's the source of quite a bit of humour. Albia's growing relationship with the magistrate himself is also handled well, leaving you wondering where it might go.The story actually covers quite a lot of ground around Roman law; though never gets bogged down. Marriage contracts, guardianship, divorce, the status of slaves and freedmen. All interesting, and relevant to the story, but handled lightly. I learnt quite a lot without any pain!As always, with Lindsey Davis, the story rattles along at pace. New faces appear, but always with just enough detail to allow you to remember them with ease. She has a singular knack of handling a large cast list with aplomb, and avoiding any confusion.I thoroughly enjoyed this story from beginning to end. Albia is an interesting character; in some ways, she has more about her than her more famous father. Lindsey Davis seems to have been re-invigorated by writing stories from a different perspective. I wondered if taking a character from the Falco books to create a new lead would work, but after the first two books, I would have to say that it is working beautifully.

It was a mere moment to step back in time and gather myself into post-Falco mode. Flavia Alba’s home is the world of dust and corruption that is Rome. I had forgotten she had a potential love interest. Eventually I remembered how they’d encountered each other in book one. Pleasingly, the young man (Tiberius) is worthy of her, intelligent enough, independent enough, and useful enough. He is an aedile, which is a bit like a sheriff, I suppose, in the Roman hierarchy.Like most of these books, a body appears, and the question is, how did it come to be there. The critical part of this plot is that under Roman law, slaves belonging to the deceased are put to death for failing to rush to protect him from his assailant. This leads to plenty of concern on Flavia’s part both for the determination of the truth, and the ethics of putting slaves to death merely for being slaves.We are treated to a full on Lindsey Davis investigation, full of beautifully written intrigue, twists, red herrings, and blind alleys. She draws us into the alleys and byways of Rome, and I occasionally wonder how she manages to inhabit this bygone world so fully that we can almost smell it with her. I love this writing, and this book is one of her best.

I read the first book in this series because I have long been a fan of the Falco series. I have to say that I was slightly disappointed so I am very glad that I decided to give the series another chance and read this novel which takes place very shortly after the end of the previous one. I enjoyed it more and will definitely be reading the next couple in the series.Manlius Faustus, who we met in book one (not required reading to understand this one) asks Flavia Albia to investigate after a newlywed couple are strangled and valuable silver they own disappears. Without an investigation and the discovery of the culprits Faustus will be obliged to put the household slaves to death for not having prevented the crime even if they didn't commit it. What follows is an investigation into the crime which is interesting, the developing love story between the two main characters which is tender and life affirming, and a description of the state of slavery in Rome which is interesting and enlightening. The author is not sparing in her description of what happens to those at the bottom of society and Flavia Albia isn't going to change society as a whole. Some of the characters will come to sad and undeserved ends, and we know that this is what lies in the future for others.Although our heroine has a witty and sarcastic narrative style this isn't really a funny book although there are moments of humour throughout. I thought that the author melded the different strands together well and if Flavia Albia is perhaps too liberated for her time she makes an engaging heroine. I enjoyed the investigation and was informed by the information about slavery and prostitution at the time but I was mostly moved by the love story - the last few pages are beautifully written.

Lindsey Davis has researched deeply into ancient Rome, and it shows. Much believable detail surrounds her entertaining and well-constructed plots. This book in particular is special. It gives a harrowing account of what life must have been like for the majority of urban slaves (it was much worse in the fields or mines). Davis includes descriptions of the poverty of many free citizens of Rome, as well as the successes achieved by some freed slaves. But they were the exception, rather than the rule. Read and learn!