THE SILVER PIGS

The prolific Lindsey Davis produces another ancient Roman enigma for her plucky detective, Marcus Didius Falco. Falco learns a dangerous secret about a stockpile of silver ingots, commonly known as silver "pigs," from the beautiful niece of a senator. He embarks on an adventure of smuggling, murder, and treason that reaches as far as the emperor's palace and Britain. Performed by a full cast, featuring Anton Lesser as Falco, this dramatization sparkles with realistic sound effects and many individual voices. The novel's adaptation is compensated by the theatrical appeal of a large, talented cast and well-conceived sound effects--trickling fountains, creaking chairs, rotating cart wheels, echoing chambers. Davis's fans will agree that Lesser is ideal as the irreverent, willful, and impetuous Falco. A.W. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2008]