Lindsey Davis - There Will Be Bodies

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have Lindsey Davis joining us here at The Heath Bookshop to talk about her new book, 'There Will Be Bodies'

Lindsey will be in talking for around an hour. There will be a book signing afterwards.

Historical novelist Lindsey Davis is best known for her novels set in Ancient Rome, including the much-loved Marcus Didius Falco series, although she has also written about the English Civil War, including A Cruel Fate, a book for the Quick Reads literacy initiative. Her examination of the paranoid reign of the roman emperor Domitian began with Master and God, a standalone novel set in that dark period, leading to her new series about Flavia Albia.

Her books are translated, and five radio dramas are regularly rebroadcast on BBC Radio 4X. Her many awards include the Premio Colosseo (from the city of Rome) and the Crime Writers' Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement. Most recently she was awarded the Ivanhoe Prize for lifetime achievement in historical fiction, given by the Spanish City of Ubeda.

She has been the Chair of the UK Crimewriters’ Association, Honorary President of the UK Classical Association, President of the Birmingham and Midlands Institute and is a Fellow of the UK Society of Authors.

There Will Be Bodies: 

Uncle Tullius has bought a house. Ten years after Mount Vesuvius erupted, he wants to support the bereaved community (for tax reasons) so he has acquired a bargain on Bay of Naples. His amiable nephew is to renovate the property – in the course of which, as Tiberius tells his sceptical workmen, there may be grim discoveries. These will have to be investigated by Albia: something for the boss’s wife to do while she waits for nice furniture to arrive and the water supply to be reconnected.

Death in the Roman world, as now, can be from domestic cruelty, a lifetime of self-abuse or a sudden accident. The fact that vicious rocks and choking ash are blotting out the daylight in the world’s most beautiful scenery does not change the poisonous dynamics of family life. ‘Friends’ may hope your income will supplement theirs – and perhaps it would be best to remove you first… Now, in the once thriving spa town of Stabiae, a curious mix of local entrepreneurs and visiting forces of law and order are at odds; then Albia plans a showdown that owes a debt to the history of forensic experiment – although both the unguents and ethics were much more slippery two thousand years ago…

As always, we look forward to seeing you. 

Catherine & Claire