She is not a charicature but a person, with all the complexity that implies. Tilla is no barbarian, nor is she a Roman matron. ![]() He is a man who tries to do the right thing, even though at times he’d like nothing more than to do the wrong one. Ruso is at times hapless, at times heroic, mostly beleaguered and often confused. Having met Ruth now, and discovered what a truly nice lady she is, it amazes me how she seems to be able to get into the mindset of hen-pecked males or vicious mysogenists or the like so well that they read as truly authentic. A plot that is not all it seems at any given point.īut once more, the major wins of the book are the main characters and Ruth’s writing. A plot that, I might add, while I grasped parts of the solution half way through, parts kept me guessing to the end. A plot that involves a fascinating and shady cast of characters from lurking town guards to power-hungry councillors to weaselly clerks to half-blind noblemen and so on. What follows is a complex and thoroughly engrossing investigation taking us from the docksides of Londinium (London) to the finance offices of Verulamium (St Albans). Ruso finds himself appointed by the province’s assistant procurator to investigate the disappearance of the tax collector and his money. Tilla becomes a friend and helper to a native woman who has got herself into disastrous trouble, her man the tax collector having disappeared with the money. Left with something of an uncertain future at the end of that book, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the fourth book, other than being sure it would be highly entertaining.Ĭaveat Emptor takes us back to Britain, where Ruso and Tilla (now man and wife) find themselves dragged into problems galore. And by the time Ruso went home to Gaul in the third book he was not only my favourite investigator, but one of my favourite characters in any book series. The second book expanded this world to include darker themes and the wild north. I suspect Ruso was my favourite investigator of crimes by the time I’d finished the first book in Ruth Downie’s Medicus series. Persona Non Grata was Ruso and the Root of All Evils,Ĭaveat Emptor was Ruso and the River of Darkness -īut SEMPER FIDELIS, TABULA RASA, VITA BREVIS, MEMENTO MORI and PRIMA FACIE only have one title each - hooray! ![]() Terra Incognita was Ruso and the Demented Doctor, Medicus was Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls, Since she is unable to wind back time, British readers may find it useful to know that: Ruth is still wondering how this ever seemed like a good idea. *The first four books have all had two titles. Downie, but she isn't the person with the same name who writes medical textbooks, and recommends that readers should never, ever take health advice from a two thousand year old man who prescribes mouse droppings. A combination of nosiness and a childish fascination with mud means she is never happier than when wielding an archaeological trowel. Ruth is the author of nine mysteries* featuring Roman Army medic Gaius Petreius Ruso and his British partner Tilla. Despite our hero's best efforts to get himself fired as investigator, he and his bride find themselves trapped at the heart of an increasingly treacherous conspiracy involving theft, forgery, buried treasure, and the legacy of Boudica, the Rebel Queen. While Tilla tries to comfort Asper's wife, an anonymous well-wisher is busy warning the couple to get away from the case before they get hurt. ![]() Compelled to delve deeper by a threat from his old sparring partner, Metellus, Ruso discovers that the good townsfolk may not be as loyal to Rome as they like to appear. And the council of the town of Verulamium is bickering over what's become of it. Of course, there's also something else missing: money. But it isn't the kind of work he'd had in mind-Ruso is tasked with hunting down a missing tax man named Julius Asper. Ruso and Tilla, now newlyweds, have moved back to Britannia, where Ruso's old friend and colleague Valens has promised to help him find work. In her fourth novel, Ruth Downie brings to life the corruption and treachery of Roman-occupied Britain, as it closes in on her leading man, Gaius Petreius Ruso.
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