I'm amazed because series tend to bore me after a while.
Not this one!
This one is always fresh and entertaining, both as a mystery and as the tale of a totally likable couple. But most amazing for me is that Falco and Helena Justina's relationship is so similar to mine with my husband. And that's something no other series has ever achieved and thus keeps me hooked to every book.
I'm a big fan of Lindsay Davis, and I've read all her Falco series, loving every single book.
But Flavia Albia is another story.
This book lacks all of Falco's wit and irony. It lacks the,warmth and the thoroughly enjoyable relationships between lovable characters.
This book is dark, heavy and repetitive at times. Where Falco doesn't take anythin seriously, Flavia Albia takes herself way too seriously. She plays it like she's the best informer, but in fact she makes so many blunders that she ought to consider a carreer change.
The plot was so predictable that I knew from Chapter One who had done it, something I never managed with any of the Falco's investigations.
And I particularly didn't like discovering that the author is biased toward women investigators. The difference between how she treats Marcus Didius Falco and Flavia Albia leaves me wondering whether she's a misogynist at heart.
For sure, I won't be reading any more of this series.
Crichton's pungent humor blends in with this historical adventure to spin an intriguing yet witty tale that kept me hooked until the last page!
True that Michael Crichton is one of my favorite authors ever, but I didn't know how funny and ironic he could be. This work was therefore an unexpected surprise, and it thoroughly delighted me.
I would recommend this book to anyone with a high sense of adventure, a curiosity for the history of the US expansion in the West, a bonding with the fate of the American Indians, but mostly the propensity to make fun of people and situations no matter how dire their conditions.