Reading Guide 1

READING GROUP GUIDE TO 'Three Hands in the Fountain' by Lindsey Davis

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

Set in Imperial Rome in the AD70's, Lindsey Davis' Falco series are mystery/adventure stories which deliberately mix genres and draw upon cultural references of all kinds. Their author hopes that neither they nor she will be taken too seriously. She believes that reading popular fiction should be fun, not a sombre discipline, and while we hope that this guide will be helpful, it does start from the premise that novels are meant to be escapism - and one of the things they should help you escape from is being told what to do or what to think!

'Three Hands in the Fountain' is the ninth book in the series, and the first of a loosely planned trilogy in which protagonist Marcus Didius Falco, an informer and imperial agent under the Emperor Vespasian, finally decides that for the sake of his girlfriend and new daughter (and Nux, the dog) he must try working with a partner in the hope of greater success. Addressing the issue of how the Romans would have traced a serial killer without benefit of modern forensic science, profiling, police computers - or even any willingness by the authorities to tackle the problem - this is also a celebration of their superb engineering skills: the dismembered corpses which Falco and his best friend Petronius investigate are discovered in the magnificent sewers and aqueducts, some of which are still in use today.

Q and A with the author

LD- Well, yes, but I only agreed to do it on condition I was allowed to say whatever I liked. That was taken to mean I would supply the questions as well as the answers - so here I am interviewing myself.

LD Both, I'm quite content to say. A drawback of writing historical novels is that if they are any good people sometimes start believing they are a substitute for real study of the period. As I desperately fight off having my books included on scholastic reading lists, I have learned to insist ferociously that I write them as entertainment. These are not textbooks. I want my readers to find a refuge here from the stress of everyday life; I want them to be reading in secret under the pillow when they relax after a hard day. I want them to feel happy, not hunted.

LD Absolutely. Followed by consideration of historical novels more specifically: should the historical background be an end in itself, or just a richly textured atmospheric device?

LD Guess!

LD Yes: guessing my approach can be a Topic for Discussion. But laughing at the medium like this does illustrate my aim in the Falco series. The narrative was never intended to be rigidly stuck in the AD70s. I hope the historical detail is accurate, because otherwise I may as well write science fiction or fantasy and invent everything - but part of the fun is the interlayering of perspectives: relating the ancient world to modern life, contrasting what a fairly macho Roman male thinks (or says he thinks) with what it can be deduced his fairly feminist English author believes (or wants you to think she believes). The layering also enables me to write for both amateurs and specialists - and to give secret jokes to various people: the farm that Falco reluctantly buys at Tivoli, for instance, is the future site of Hadrian's villa. And Damon (the driver who is not allowed to go fast) is the first name of a British racing driver…

Because the first tenet of a detective novel is the ranging of good and evil against one another, you are bound to discuss moral and social issues. That lends itself to the kind of dryly satirical allusion that I enjoy.

LD Oh, all right. The point in a mystery is to tell a damn good story. You need a body - then to keep up the excitement in dull patches a good editor will ask you for a few more corpses- you need clues, interviews with suspects, false trails, and some kind of thrilling chase. To keep the suspense rolling, it's useful to have a 'race against time' imposed on the protagonist(s): in 'Three Hands' it is the need to catch the killer before he strikes again at the next formal Games in the Circus Maximus. Naturally, Falco and Petronius fail to do this once, which enables me to wind up the tension by moving from unknown corpses who may be long dead, to a named victim, with added poignancy through learning details of her life and seeing the grief of her husband. Then they have one final chance…

LD What has been done to the victims is horrible, but I never show it happening and their mutilated bodies are only briefly described. I believe in the theory that one telling detail is stronger than pages of minute description, and that violence (like sex) can be just as convincing where you ask the reader to use his or her own imagination. Showing the grim effect the bodies have on Falco and his cronies - hard men, deeply moved - is better than voyeuristic sightings of pervertion in action.

LD To write or to read mysteries you have to see death as a literary device only, a tool of the plot which enables everything else in the novel. But anyone who has known sudden and pointless death of any kind, let alone been close to a murder, must have qualms. It's realistic to have 'gallows humour'; that's how people cope in real life. But I insist that Falco respects victims and remembers that their deaths have lifelong consequences for those left behind. There is always a sadness in the presence of death, and anger about any kind of bullying or violence.

LD Betrayal is the worst. ('Discuss!')

LD This must be what the computer chaps call a FAQ. I enjoy it. If I am thrilled by what I find out, readers should be excited too. It's the 'Wow, I didn't know that!' syndrome. But because in the end this is fiction, I can invent what I don't know. (A Warning to those who take these books too seriously!) Writing has brought me lot of experiences I would once never have dreamed of: I have visited Syria and Libya; I have rung the reptile house at London Zoo and asked intimate questions about pythons; for 'Three Hands' I went down a still-working Roman sewer…

LD Nobody else was doing them. Unlike other authors I only ever wanted to find something different. I despise those who are content to be called 'the new Mimsy Bloggins'. I want to be the only Lindsey Davis.

LD That sounds like the title of a novel.

LD I wanted to write historical romances about periods like the English Civil War, but could only sell them as light serials to women's magazines. I changed my setting to the Rome of the Caesars, then wrote 'The Course of Honour' - the love story of Vespasian and his mistress Antonia Caenis. Publishers were wary of the Ancient World at that time, but following on from my research into the city, I had the idea to use it as a metropolitan background for a private eye novel. The first Falco story, 'The Silver Pigs' was deliberately planned as a 'spoof', making a joke of the strange mixture; right from the start, however, I wanted to overturn stereotypes too. The format doesn't work for

everyone, but they can read something else while the eccentrics like me enjoy stretching their imaginations.

LD Yes, it is rather daunting when somebody you invented arouses such strong feelings! Well, I tried to make him human. People respond to his character, especially his good sense and sense of humour. But other aspects of the books appeal just as much: his scintillating partnership with Helena Justina, his feud with the evil Chief Spy (who has a big fan club, for some reason), and the family and friends who surround the central couple, forming a ongoing human story. Many people say they are most enthralled by the 'soap opera', in fact.

LD One day I shall write something different, for my own pleasure and prove that I can. But there are the next two books in the trilogy to come: 'Two for the Lions' and 'One Virgin Too Many' (both written), then I am contracted to do three more.

LD It's my job.

LD I produce a book a year, plus other work. I don't have time to luxuriate in nonsense. I gather the material, assemble it in a pleasing arrangement, and type like mad. 100,000+ words is a major undertaking. It's tremendous fun, but you have to be disciplined. Topic for Discussion: is inspiration more important to an author of fiction than a good knowledge of grammar?

LD Set an exam on my own work? It's like a game you would play as a child (assuming, I suppose, you were an inventive child). Ah well, I am but a pawn in the hands of my editor. Here goes:

FOR DISCUSSION

1 From what you have read so far, do you believe Lindsey Davis really is a pawn in the hands of an editor - or anyone?

2 Find the topics for discussion in the Q and A section, and discuss them

3 Discuss anything else there that you find controversial. Or even interesting.

4 What do you imagine the hypothetical author Mimsy Bloggins to be like? Do you think you would enjoy her books?

5 Falco was derived initially as a classic genre 'private eye'. What are the criteria for this, and in what ways - in his character and situation - does he meet or depart from them?

6 He is now attempting to work with a partner, Petronius Longus. How does this relate to his existing partnership with Helena, and what does the failure of the two old cromies to work together tell us about friendship? There will be different partners in succeeding books. Who do you think the author will choose? (NB the third one in fact turned out not to be the person she had intended!)

7 The squad of vigiles, first introduced in detail in 'Time to Depart' are used like the ensemble characters in a 'police procedural' crime novel. Our lack of knowledge of Roman police procedure creates obvious difficulties, but which elements of modern policier crime novels do translate here?

8 Although it is not necessary to know this, the character Julius Frontinus was a historical figure. What do you think it adds if you are told that he was a governor of Roman Britain (does it add more for British readers than for Americans?) and that he wrote a famous Latin treatise on aqueducts? How do you feel about the use of 'real' people in historical novels?

9 When the series began, Falco was a rather disreputable character, in his own mind at least a fabulous seducer of women, whereas Petronius occupied the standard position of hard-working official policeman, a good family man too. How has this now developed, and where do you feel it will end for them both?

10 People sometimes say 'A Roman girl of good family would not behave as Helena has done'. The author replies that there is an example in Juvenal of a senator's wife who ran off with a gladiator - and an elderly beaten-up gladiator at that. She believes that there have always been spirited girls who did as they liked. True? Likely? Is it acceptable to say that what never changes in history is human nature?

11 By accident the first book was written in the first person because it seemed traditional. What are the advantages and disadvantages? Are there any particular problems in developing the story in a crime novel? What about the pros and cons of perpetual direct speech in a narrative?

11a Given that most ordinary Romans probably did not speak like Cicero, and that even Cicero probably did not speak like his speeches in private, consider how an author can satisfy those who want their historical characters to sound Really Classical, while also achieving pace, liveliness, conviction, and wit for those who are less pedantic?

12 How can a woman write as a man? Why can't most men write about women at all, let alone in the first person? Whatever happened to simple observation?

13 Discuss the recurrent theme of organisational politics.

14 (If question 13 is answered fully, there will be no time for any others!)

End