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Desperate Undertaking

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About this listen

 The next witty, must-listen book in the Flavia Albia series.

Rome, the very end of December. The Field of Mars is packed with monuments, none more beautiful than Domitian's new Odeon and Stadium. But the area has been overtaken by ugly events: elaborately staged murders. Someone bears a spectacular grudge against the theatrical community, and intends to get revenge in the most spectacular way possible. The killer's method is to re-enact bloody scenes from the gruesome side of popular theatre, where characters in plays really die on stage.

A figure from the past wants Flavia Albia's father to investigate, but Falco is out of Rome for the holidays. Albia seizes the commission. And begins to regret doing so almost immediately. 'The undertaker did it!' the first victim croaks before expiring. This seems to make no sense, because surely people are already dead when they go to their funeral?

Though there is a serial killer at large, the authorities would prefer a cover-up but Albia is driven to discover what is going on. How much blood must be shed before the mania ends? And could her own family be on the list for a frightful stage death?

(P) 2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited©2022 Lindsey Davis Detective Fiction Historical Mystery Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Crime Murder Witty

Critic reviews

Ancient Rome rocks thanks to this bestseller. She has the skills to have you shaking your toga with giggles one minute, and gasping the next a gruesome turn of events
Fiendishly twisted mystery
As ever, Davis transports us to a superbly realised ancient world full of persuasive detail
Great fun, shot through with sharp observations
All stars
Most relevant
I love nearly all of Falco & Albia, this is no exception.
Well read again! Entertaining & gives an atmosphere of a lively Roman Rome.
Great stuff

Humour, history & murder

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The narrator made Albia sound too young and girlish, she is a streetwise, twice married Roman matron. To be fair the book doesn’t always help veering between: the horrors I have seen, and a chick lit level of fluffy he’s my man ….
These stories are ok but flabbier than the Falco novels and really need editing back. This one had way to much detail on Roman theatre and Greek / Roman drama far more than is is required for the story. This then slows the story down and means it feels much less exciting than it has the potential to be. Also it was quite unpleasantly gory, again with too much detail- might have been a shock if you were expecting a more “cosy” crime novel.

Another outing for Albia

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Detailed and prolonged descriptions of crucifixions and tortures didn’t add to the suspense of a complex and long winded tale. As a Falco spin off the books have never really worked and the reader is very poor she isn’t able to change tone or tempo and that makes listening a hard slog.

Gruesome

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Far too long. It's essentially a description of the architecture and the life of ancient Rome, with a convoluted tale woven through.
Like many other reviewers, I've read every one of the series, starting with Falco. I think it's gone on too long. It's lost its spark. I'm sorry. Albia doesn't have the appeal of her father.
The outcome was predictable. It took too long to get there.

Needed editing

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A big fan of all of the Falco series by Lindsey Davis, my expectations for the stories featuring his adopted daughter were high. Certainly, Desperate Undertaking has a wealth of information about funeral rites and theatrics performed, as well as it being fun to view Falco and Helena Justine from their daughter's perspective.
But please bring back Lucy Brown as narrator: her warm, pleasing performance as Flavia Albia brought her to life and made listening a pleasure. Sadly, it is June Collingwood telling this story from Albia's viewpoint and I struggled throughout to even stay awake. Don't get me wrong: Ms.Collingwood's reading is very well modulated but slow and little girlie: perfect for many children's books but completely wrong for this feisty investigator. A great pity

"Don't call me Flavia."

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