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Three Hands In The Fountain

by Lindsey Davis

Three Hands In The Fountain is the tenth of the Marcus Didius Falco books – and most likely not the latest – but an excellent example of Lindsey Davis' delightful humor as well as an example of studious research into ancient Rome. Perhaps one of the things I loved most in this novel is the frequency of current English (British) useage: Words such as 'kip' and 'gormless' undoubtedly had their Roman equivalents, but to find them so aptly placed in a historical setting is only one of the surprises in this great book.

Marcus Didius Falco, the main character, is an informer during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian. In current terms, an informer then is a present-day detective now. Married to the beautiful and wise Helena, he's also the proud new father of Julia Junilla Laeitana, his baby daughter.

Falco recruits his longtime friend Petronius Longus to help him in discovering the murderer who's polluting the aqueducts with severed hands. Petronius has been suspended from his regular job with the vigiles (police) due to his recent liaisons with Balbina Milvia, a lithesome girl deeply involved with the criminal contingent of Rome. Falco is informed by Petronious that he's just acquired a partner (him) when Anacrites shows up, hoping to become just that. Anacrites is an anathema to Falco, living with Falco's landlady mother. Falco is saved from close association with Anacrites and immediately puts Petronius to work in helping him find the killer.

Three Hands In The Fountain supplies some interesting facts about the aqueducts, those tall, graceful marvels of engineering which supplied not only Rome but its environs and other parts of the country with water for its fountains, baths, and private residences. It was especially fascinating since I'd just read Pompeii (not a mystery!), a fictional account of the eruption of Vesuvius seen through the eyes of a young man who supervised the Aqua Augusta – an aqueduct skirting that famous volcano.

Finding the murderer who cuts up pretty young girls then disposes of their body parts seems at first a fearsomely difficult project, but gradually our two intrepid Romans discover that the murders usually take place after games at the Circus Maximus. When the public realizes that their water supply has been contaminated, further assistance appears in the form of Senator Julius Frontinus (an actual historical individual). One of the Water Board's assistants, Bolanus, helps Falco, Petronius and Frontinus by showing them the intricacies of the aqueducts, then suggesting that the best place for disposing the body parts might be out in the country, the Campagna, in a river which supplies the aqueducts where the hands were found. The torsos were dumped into the Tiber closer to Rome and usually hidden by those who found them for fear of being accused of the murders themselves.

Helena's own family, including her senator father, is a cut above Falco socially, but the older brother Camillus Aelianus is paired off with Claudia Rufina, a well-endowed girl (in both respects) brought over from Spain by Falco and Helena – and staying at the Camillus house since they had no extra bedroom for her. Justinus, the younger and handsomer of the two brothers had once worked closely with Falco abroad, and Falco knew that even though he had the capacity to look dumb and gullible, he was actually smarter than his older brother. The wedding between Claudia and Aelianus will hopefully bring some much needed money to the Camilli household.

Now Petronius gets himself thoroughly beaten up by thugs in the employ of Florius, Balbina Milvia's husband. Gradually recovering, he insists on being allowed to accompany the others when they travel to the Campagna. Fruitless interrogations of the inhabitants, both wealthy and poor, bring the informers no results. They decide that the only way to catch the killer is to keep watch when the games
are over each night and loose the crowd inside the Circus Maximus. Since the crowd consists of thousands, this is no easy task.

Claudia disappears and is feared to have become the murderer's latest victim. When the victim is found, however, and still alive – she proves to be someone Falco would rather have seen dead! But with the help of Frontinus, the murderer is caught and captured, to be returned ignominiously to Roman justice. Claudia has simply escaped Aelianus for a better partner. Petronius has forsaken Malvia and can return to his old job – which means the partnership is once again open…

In spite of all the Latin names, the aura of ancient Rome comes through loud and clear. Lindsey Davis has accommodated us with enough local color to make historical truth come alive from it's fictional base, and does it with flair and panache as well as with a touch of fun. Three Hands In The Fountain shows us a very human Roman male as well as a typical father!

Alan Paul Curtis

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