#1 in the Gaius Petreius Ruso historical mystery series set in Roman-occupied Britannia. Ruso, a recently-divorced doctor who has moved from his family home in Gaul to an army outpost in Deva (modern-day Chester, UK) and stumbles immediately into a mystery, with the dead, naked body of a young woman brought into his surgery. Most of her red hair has been lopped off, and he's curious not only about her, but about her killer. When he discovers that she was a "dancing girl" from one of the local bars and that another woman who worked there has disappeared, and no one is investigating, he takes an unofficial but widely-known interest and begins nosing around.

All this while attempting to deal with long hours in his duties as a doctor/surgeon, a slave girl he purchased who has a bit of an attitude problem and is unable to do anything because of injuries that need healing, a roommate (in a rather run-down, filthy home) who is vying with him for the position of Chief Medical Officer--a job Ruso badly needs so he can send his family money and avoid their farm going under, and a host of other little problems. Poor Ruso! He's made the mistake of being someone who cares and seems to get slapped down for it time and again in a series of unfortunate events.

The story is written in an engaging style with plenty of wry humor and well-developed characters. The only regret I have is that this book sat on my TBR stacks for way too long--but I am glad to have the next two waiting for me. Excellent! A+

Looking forward to the next in the series!

Medicus and the Disappearing Dancing Girls is the first of a series of novels that follows the misfortunes of a Roman Army Medical Officer, Gaius Petreius Ruso, after his posting from the warm climes of North Africa to the dreary grey drizzle of Deva (pron. Dewa); that's modern day Chester.

Ruso is down on his luck and doesn't own much more than a few mounting debts. As well as trying to support his own life in the British garrison town, he is obliged to send funds home to his brother in southern Gaul lest his family find themselves destitute and homeless.

His medical colleague at the garrison hospital, who shares his squalid house with Ruso, takes life as it comes and has a wicked sense of humour, and is no help at all. Consequently, Ruso has very little support from anyone as he tries to traverse his difficult life. Almost by accident he finds himself burdened with further unmanageable debts, becomes the reluctant owner of an injured slave, Tilla, and is in continual conflict with the hospital administrator and many of the local Britons.

There are many reflections of twenty-first century society in this book, ranging from the financial and administrative pressures on the health service to the very serious issue of the white slave trade. I am sure that these parallels are deliberately drawn by the author to provoke the reader into thoughts beyond the main storyline.

Ruso becomes an unwilling detective, trying to track down the truth behind the disappearance of several dancing girls from the local brothel and bar. The story moves at a leisurely pace and, in the main, insinuates the brutality of the age rather than going into explicit detail.

I have always been a big fan of historical novels as, with conversations and images, they bring history to life around those dry, boring dates and names that I had to learn in the school classroom. Medicus does this for me and, at the same time, introduces some interesting characters whom I very much look forward to meeting again as the series unfolds. I strongly suspect that Ruso's slave, Tilla, will become his driving force.

This is an excellent detective story, and the links between Roman Britain and Modern Britain are particularly pleasing. I would recommend Medicus to anyone who enjoys a good historical fiction.

...The back cover made it sound so interesting and original - like a historical fiction mystery with men in short tunics with great senses of humor. It's really about a lonely, rather boring medicus (doctor) for the Roman Empire stationed overseas who stumbles upon a whorehouse, a couple of missing girls, and some bad oysters. Of course in the mix there is a beautiful, resilient, implausible slave girl - who was possibly once royalty or a healer or ???. Did I mention the doctor is in debt trying to save the family farm which conveniently lends itself to extortion?

The first 100 pages had me nearly comatose as our characters were painfully developed. Then the plot kicked in and had me guessing for a few minutes, until the introduction of a newish character who, to me,was clearly killer. I spent the last 50 pages waiting for the happy ending because well, everything else ended up neatly so why not the doc and the slave girl?

In the end it was tolerable but not something I'd recommend.

It took me a while to get the humor in this book but once I did, I started to enjoy it. Gaius Petreius Ruso is a broke, divorced doctor serving the 20th legion, just arrived to the wilds of Britannia. He's extremely grumpy, always grumbling about not wanting to get involved in anybody's business, but at the end, he always does the right thing. And that's how I realized what a good and kind man he was. No matter what he said or thought, he would always go out of his way to help others, even when it wasn't comfortable for him.

The mystery of the murdered girls was almost a backdrop for Ruso's life at the hospital and his relationship with his recently acquired slave girl. Although he tried not to care, you can see in his behavior how much he really does. There is a lot of modern terminology in this book but it serves the humor in this book, which is a lot about what you would think of as modern problems in an ancient setting. When I got it, I chuckled quite a bit.

The narration by Simon Vance was outstanding of course. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it as much reading it in print.

The way the book ended made me want to pick up the next one up right away. I really want to see how things progress with Ruso and Tilla.

Medicus
3.5 Stars

Gaius Petrius Ruso, a medicus (doctor) with the 20th Roman Legion stationed in Britannia, finds himself investigating the deaths of two prostitutes working out of a local bar. 

While the book is heavy on establishing the setting and developing the characters, it is light on the plot and investigation of the crimes.

Much of the story involves the day to day activities of the main character as he treats patients at the legion hospital, and becomes involved in the lives of the people of Deva (modern day Chester) due to his inadvertent rescue of a slave girl, Tilla.

Although the information on the Roman occupation of Britain is well-researched and interesting, and the characters are fully fleshed out and appealing, it is exactly this development and attention to detail that slows the pacing of the mystery.

Ruso's reluctant involvement in the murder is merely a secondary consequence of his relationship with Tilla, and he more or less stumbles across the culprit without any real investigation. Nevertheless, the resolution is satisfying as everyone gets their just desserts.

All in all, a good premise, solid writing and a likable protagonist make this a decent read. I will probably continue with the series if and when I need a book set in the Roman Empire for a challenge.

Medicus is what I call a 'popcorn' book: a book to pick up and settle in with for an evening's cozy reading. Entertainment value: 5 stars, but several months from now I'll have a hard time remembering much beyond the main characters: Gaius Petrius Ruso, a physician stationed in Brittania with the Roman army, and Tilla, the slave girl he reluctantly purchases from an abusive master. Ruso, long suffering, wry, and a humanist doomed to be forever caught up in other people's suffering despite his attempts at pragmatism, is the main entertainment here. Downie does a decent job at bringing her world to life, but the plot and various plot threads are fairly predictable.

Inevitably, I've also got to compare Medicus to Lindsay Davis's very fun and entertaining Falco series, also a detective series set in ancient Rome. I do feel that Downie has a better feel for writing from the male perspective, but Davis's Rome is more finely wrought, her plots better developed. Both series have a nice element of humor, although readers who prefer to smile rather than laugh out loud with their mysteries might be more comfortable with Downie's more character-driven style.

Despite an overly long development of the characters which made the beginning of the book almost snooze worthy, I found this mystery story quite good.

I love the setting in the Roman occupied Britain of the 2nd century. The character of the doctor lends itself to great descriptions of the medical beliefs and practices of the time, some of them surprisingly sophisticated.
The very saucy slave might be a bit of a stretch but not completely unfeasible considering the character traits of the doctor and the conquered population.

An enjoyable, fun book and I expect the rest of the series will get better.

It was time for a nice historical cozy to clean my palate and sweep out the hopeless depression swamping me after finally reading one of the science non-fiction books on my TBR list spelling out that our environmental destruction of the earth has crossed a tipping point. 'Medicus' appeared to be that more fun fiction book to lift my spirits. It has left me refreshed!

Well, sort of.

The Romans rule in Britannia and are enslaving the local population, taking their land, their women, and their wealth. But on the bright side, our hero, military physician Gaius Petreius Ruso, has taken a post in the Deva hospital, whose primary purpose is to fix the various injuries of Roman citizens and soldiers stationed there to watch over the locals, as well as any connected Britannians. It suits Ruso's purpose in escaping family difficulties back home in Rome, mostly financial difficulties incurred by his recently deceased father and Ruso's ex-wife's rancor. A far away, as far away as Ruso could get, posting in a beautiful country, recommended by his best friend Valens, was very appealing, but upon spending a few days in the hospital and the small port town of Deva, Ruso isn't so certain any longer that this position was such a good idea, despite the opportunity for promotion to Chief Medical Officer, a step up in rank and pay. He finds he is working very hard, too hard, and he must be available 24/7. The town is nothing but old small buildings currently being retrofitted or being rebuilt to Roman standards, and the local barbarians are unsmiling, sullen and blank faced. Chief Administrative Officer Priscuss, who runs the hospital, is a strict paper pusher and obsessive about rules.

Ruso saved the life of the emperor Trajan in Rome. Trajan was extremely frightened since he was on the point of being trapped inside a building falling down in the middle of a nasty earthquake, so he thought his rescuer was maybe a god. However, Ruso is a very honorable young man, so he refused to come forward and reveal his identity as the one who saved Trajan. This sense of honor and lack of political acumen became the main reason Claudia, his now ex-wife, left him.

Divorced, depressed, on the point of bankruptcy, Ruso hopes to begin a new, responsible honorable life in Brittania, but he still will be sending part of his pay back home to help out his impoverished family. His lodgings are soon made disgusting, being simply unused spare rooms in the hospital, and Valens, pet dogs and he quickly turn the mouse-infested apartment into dirty bachelor's rooms. Mulling over his family's problems, his poverty, his new patients, Priscuss and a mysteriously murdered slave girl pulled from the river and now in the mortuary (she is haunting him with several oddities he noticed in examining her body), he runs into a group of people abusing a barbarian broken-armed slave girl, about to begin her career as a prostitute.

Que the romantic string orchestra.

'Medicus' is more of a cozy than a normal mystery, despite some historic realism about an enslaved population and the various soldiers who enforce their authority over them. Ruso is such a middle-class innocent that I wanted to shake him time and again. When it comes to understanding that people should not be taken at face value, that they may dissemble for private and criminal reasons, and that politics matter, he is a complete fool. Not being a very organized or focused individual, he also is such a helpless young man, although hard working, hobbling himself with a high-minded sense of honor, duty and innocence, I found myself wondering if I could go on with this series. But he begins to put things together (his innocence being from a lack of experience and not a lack of intelligence) and with the very interesting characters around him, I soon began to enjoy this first book in Ruth Downie's series. However, this reminded me of British cozies which emphasize the colorful locals at the expense of quick action. Even so, there are a few scenes which a sensitive reader may find rousing a queasy squeamishness. For me, it was on the tame side, but not too nice for my comfort zone.

In my opinion, this book was just okay. The last chapter was pretty decent storytelling. The author did a fair job with character creation, but they could have used a bit more depth. I give credit for the attempt at telling a story from an era where there is little documentation to allow a better understanding of the interaction of the two peoples.

I read, intermittently, historical fiction, and I also read, intermittently, mystery books. While some of my very favorite authors cross both genres (Laurie R. King being the premier examples), I am fussy about both, and so tend to be leery of historical mysteries—most fail to work for me, as mysteries or as historical novels. This book is one of those rare examples of an excellent historical novel wrapped around an excellent mystery. It is fairly unconventional as a mystery, as it never actually settles into being a mystery. Gaius Petreius Ruso is a garrison doctor in Roman-occupied Britain, and has no interest whatever in conducting investigations. Mysterious bodies, however, end up coming his way, and he ends up asking the occasional question in spite of himself. While both the plot and the historical setting are convincing, what sets this book apart is the tone—it is wry and witty, without ever straying into anachronism. It ends up reading rather like M*A*S*H as set in Roman Britain, and I enjoyed it thoroughly and can’t wait to read the sequel.

Atmospheric, historical and clever plot.
A comfort read, if you also want a mystery.

I couldn’t put down this excellent novel about the life of Gaius Petrius Ruso, a Roman Army doctor living in 2nd century Deva. Not only does Ruso have the trials and tribulations of dealing with the local populace, the soldiers of the 20th Legion, army bureaucracy and Tilla, a truculent female Brigantian slave, but he also has a murder mystery to solve.
Two women, both working girls at the local brothel have been murdered and no-one seems to care. Investigating the murders, Ruso soon runs into a wall of silence and before very long finds that his life in danger.
Ruth Downie has written an excellent novel which brings Deva (modern day Chester, England) to life, which not many writers of this period manage to pull off. Well done to her and I’m really looking forward to reading the others in the series.