There Will Be Bodies (Flavia Albia)
90 AD. In the latest in her Flavia Albia series, Lindsey Davis takes us to the Bay of Naples some ten years after Vesuvius. While much of the disaster area remains buried in volcanic debris, on the outskirts, things are slowly improving.
Tullius Icilius, parsimonious uncle of Albia’s husband, Tiberius Manlius, has bought a villa in Stabiae and commissioned his builder nephew to clear and restore it, and identify any discovered human remains. Leaving their two foster sons with Tullius, Albia and Tiberius, together with their household staff and workmen, head south. It isn’t long before the first skeletons, those of three slaves, are uncovered, followed by the remains of a man who was carefully laid out in a shed before the ash started to fall. Albia is tasked with discovering the truth behind these deaths, which she does with her usual verve.
The journey revives unhappy memories for Albia of coming here ten years ago with her father in search of family members who had been working in the area and who never were found, and of her childhood in Britannia after Boudicca’s revolt. There Will Be Bodies explores the price of survival: not only of the all-encompassing natural disaster, but also of violent deeds conveniently covered up by the ash and which are only now coming to light.
Although we know Albia from the Falco series, her own series starts in 89 AD, after her first husband’s death. Here she reminds us that she and Tiberius have been married for only six months. Her time in Stabiae is one of personal growth. Readers who have visited the towns and sites of the Bay of Naples will enjoy the vivid descriptions of the challenges faced by a population gradually getting back to some sort of normalcy. Overall, a very fine historical detective novel.
