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Gaius Petrius Ruso is a divorced and down-on-his-luck army doctor who has made the rash decision to seek his fortune in an inclement outpost of the Roman Empire, namely Britannia. His arrival in Deva (more commonly known as Chester, England) does little to improve his mood, and after a straight thirty-six-hour shift at the army hospital, he succumbs to a moment of weakness and rescues an injured slave girl, Tilla, from the hands of her abusive owner.Now he has a new problem: a slave who won't talk, can't cook, and drags trouble in her wake. Before he knows it, Ruso is caught in the middle of an investigation into the deaths of prostitutes working out of the local bar. A few years earlier, after he rescued Emperor Trajan from an earthquake in Antioch, Ruso seemed headed for glory; now he's living among heathens in a vermin-infested bachelor pad and must summon all his forensic knowledge to find a killer who may be after him next. Who are the true barbarians, the conquered or the conquerors? It's up to Ruso-certainly the most likeable sleuth to come out of the Roman Empire-to discover the truth. With a gift for comic timing and historic detail, Ruth Downie has conjured an ancient world as raucous and real as our own.… (more)
bookfitz: Readers of books by Ruth Downie may also enjoy Steven Saylor's Roman Blood, which is another historical novel that takes place in Ancient Rome. Roman Blood and the subsequent novels in the Sub Rosa series are set in Rome during the final days of the Roman Republic and follow the character Gordianus the Finder as he solves politically charged mysteries. Saylor's novels have been critically acclaimed for their historical details.… (more)
Got this in a Kindle Daily deal some time ago and got the rest of the series in a Big Deal a few months later. I had owned 2 & 3 in hard copy some years ago but they were disposed of when I moved house. I've finally got around to reading the full series.
I found this a slow book. Whereas I liked the Romano-British setting, I found the slow pacing hard to get into and it made me not really care about the characters. I also found the plot somewhat confused and the title character not very sympathetic.
Medicus; a novel of the Roman Empire. Ruth Downie. 2006. Well, Crimereads.com let me down on this one. I just couldn’t get into it. A Roman doctor is goes to Britannia to get away from an ex-wife and family financial problems. Several prostitutes are murdered and, against his will, he gets involved in trying to find the murderer. I didn’t finish it. Hospitals weren’t established until the middle ages and this novel is in a “hospital” that is set up like a hospital today in that he deals with charts, supply rooms, orderlies and such. I could not “willingly suspend my disbelief.” ( )
O diva ... / serves iturum Caesarem in ultimos / orbis Britannos // Oh, Goddess, / safeguard Caesar as he sets off for the remotest / regions of the Earth--Britain. --Horace
Dedication
To Andy, with love
First words
Someone had washed the mud off the body, but as Gaius Petreius Ruso unwrapped the sheet, there was still a distinct smell of river water.
Gaius Petrius Ruso is a divorced and down-on-his-luck army doctor who has made the rash decision to seek his fortune in an inclement outpost of the Roman Empire, namely Britannia. His arrival in Deva (more commonly known as Chester, England) does little to improve his mood, and after a straight thirty-six-hour shift at the army hospital, he succumbs to a moment of weakness and rescues an injured slave girl, Tilla, from the hands of her abusive owner.Now he has a new problem: a slave who won't talk, can't cook, and drags trouble in her wake. Before he knows it, Ruso is caught in the middle of an investigation into the deaths of prostitutes working out of the local bar. A few years earlier, after he rescued Emperor Trajan from an earthquake in Antioch, Ruso seemed headed for glory; now he's living among heathens in a vermin-infested bachelor pad and must summon all his forensic knowledge to find a killer who may be after him next. Who are the true barbarians, the conquered or the conquerors? It's up to Ruso-certainly the most likeable sleuth to come out of the Roman Empire-to discover the truth. With a gift for comic timing and historic detail, Ruth Downie has conjured an ancient world as raucous and real as our own.
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Wikipedia in English
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