Not Quite a Classic

03 Nov 2004
The Secret History - Donna Tartt - Penguin 1993
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Donna Tartt's story is set in a New England college and her protagonists are a snobby clique studying ancient Greek under an eccentric professor. This setting is bound to appeal to anyone who has had an Oxbridge/Ivy League education, which would include, I would guess, the majority of literary critics writing for the national newspapers and magazines in the US and Britain. So it is not surprising that this book received rave reviews when it first came out (clever woman...). This may explain why the blurb on the back describes it as "truly deserving of the accolade Modern Classic". Yes, well, very good it certainly is, but a classic it is not.
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Courtroom Drama, Roman-style

14 Nov 2004
The Accusers - Lindsey Davis - Century 2003
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So here we are back in ancient Rome. Time for another humdrum murder mystery - a senator dies in mysterious circumstances, various of his family and servants are the suspects, nobody will talk to the detectives, but Falco works out what happened anyway. This is the plot that Davis summarises in a single chapter. The rest of it is rather more interesting.
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