This. Yes.
I’m generally a sucker for anything related to ancient Rome, and this series is a treat. It’s slow-moving, but in a leisurely way, almost like playing an RPG: we wander along the streets of small towns and military camps in Roman-occupied Brittania, bumping into all sorts of strange fellows. It’s at time hilarious, at times sweet, sometimes a little suspenseful. I love Ruso’s awkwardness, occasional bouts of typically Roman machismo and his humanity. I know some readers aren’t big fans of Tilla, but I think I see what Ruth Downie is doing with her, and her character makes in fact a lot of sense, even if her decisions may not fit the traditional, modern set of values we rely on to assess characters.

My only qualm would be that Medicus disappoint a little in tension-filled scenes: those can be confuse and lack any urgency (this is very visible at the end of book #1, where you see the plot come together, but there’s no real sense of urgency, even as characters are dying and we’re in the middle of a messy, emotionally intense conclusion.

Note: I tested book #1 on Audible as well. I’m not a fan of the narration, it’s a bit too stilted, and they really should have hired a female voice to dub Tilla and the other women in the book: their lines are a bit cringe-worthy in spite of the narrator’s commendable efforts.

Dosadno. Nije to tako loše napisano ali dosadno. DOSADNO :D

I was really thrilled when I finished this, because I was all like, “Yay! FINALLY ONE I DON’T HAVE TO KEEP!” Don’t get me wrong–this is an entertaining mystery, but it’s not one that I need to have in my collection, which means that I don’t have to pack it! OH JOY!

But I digress.

Ruso, a Roman military doctor, is stationed in Britain after a nasty divorce and the death of his feckless father. He’s burdened by debt (dad lived it up and paid on credit) and bummed out by the bad weather (he was stationed in Africa before, and now he’s stuck with British fog). Basically, he is strapped for cash and in a foul mood, but when he sees a slave owner mistreating a slave girl with an obviously-broken arm, he snaps and uses the rest of his cash to buy her at a bargain and then nurse her back to health. Which is altruistic and all, but since he doesn’t have the money to keep her, he “comes to his senses” and decides to sell her the second she can use her arm again.

Awww. How touching.

In the meantime, though, the town whores–who are also slaves–are going missing under mysterious and kinda gross circumstances. People tell Ruso not to investigate, but of course he investigates. And his slave, Tilla, starts making inquiries of her own.

I liked this for the simple reason that usually when I read books about Rome, they don’t really concentrate on what it would have been like to be an ordinary slave. People are often like, “Well, Roman slavery wasn’t that bad–you could eventually free yourself or even become a prominent member of society while still enslaved!” But those were the exceptions, not the rule. Downie does a good job of showing the full horror of what being owned by another human being entailed: not having the right to so much as leave the house unless given permission, being forced to work whether you were well or sick, being forced into prostitution if it suited your “master’s” purposes, and having no say in your future–a future dictated by the financial well-being and goodwill of your owner, not by anything you might do or say. I mean, all of those things are a big fat “duh,” but when writing about the Roman Empire, a lot of authors gloss them over.

Slavery differs from place to place and from time to time, but one fact never changes: as a slave, you’re subject to the whims and foibles of another, very fallible human being. And that never doesn’t suck.

Recommended for: If you like gritty mysteries, you’ll probably enjoy this.

This first installment of a historical mystery series is touted as one of the best books on Ancient Rome. It is set in Deva(Chester), Britannia we follow a medicus, doctor who on his recent arrival to this city is confronted with numerous dead females.

This should tick all my boxes, debut novel, way to learn about Ancient Rome in an entertaining way and mystery guaranteed to be light enough reading. Well, it is light reading, but the tone and content is best described as a modern sensibility squeezed onto well-researched history on Roman occupation. And the modern colloquiums kept pulling me out of the narrative. I will be a bit more forgiving about the mystery development because it is a debut. But it was frustrating to have clues continuously mentioned and dropped by events that didn’t advance the plot.
Despite these glaring faults, the author did set up characters that I could revisit from time to time.

So overall, a potential gem of a series which could be great once author improves her craft.
A generous 3 star rating, it’s more 2.5. And I suggest getting from the library or used book before committing to buying the entire series.

Tīri labs vēsturiskais detektīvs par Romas Impērijas norieta periodu, imperātora Adriana laiks, Britu salas. Interesantāks gan šķita nevis detektīvsižets,bet gan tā laika medicīnas metožu apraksts.

I wish I liked this book more than I did.

Roman-England a favorite time and place. Have enjoyed and re-read multiple novels set there.
Liked this one, too, first time through, but have no desire to read again. Started losing interest in series about book three. (Are there many ADHD librarians?)
***
A couple favorites for "then" - Pauline Edge and George Shipway

An exceptional romp through the Roman Army Camp alongside medicus Gaius Ruso. I love how the author wove the threads of mystery together with Roman medical practice and administrative angst. We've all worked with someone solely focussed on following the rules, and so it was easy to sympathise with Ruso and his dealings with the hospital's administrative arm.
The plot around the missing slave girls kept me on the edge of seat. Very well narrated, leaving me guessing right to the end.
I recommend this book to any lovers of Roman history, but this is history seen from the sidelines. There aren't any brutal battles on the fringes of the Empire, more small familial battles between locals trying to survive in the shadow of the Roman invaders.

What's a doc to do?

Father has died leaving debts. Brother has a very fertile wife. Stepmother is a bit of a over shopper. The less said about the ex-wife the better. And now, here he is at the end of the world.

Okay, Roman Britian.

But they dress werid.

Oh, and dead girls seem to like him.

Is this the best mystery I've ever read? No. But it's not the worst either. There are some wonderful touches of humor and the world feels real. It's a nice diverting read.

The story itself was nothing special, just a typical pop mystery, but I enjoyed the setting of Brittania during the reign of Trajan/Hadrian in the Roman Empire - will definitely check more of these books out.

A while back, I tried to get into the much-acclaimed Marcus Didius Falco series, and just couldn't. So, when I saw this book on sale as an Audible Daily Deal, I thought for a couple of bucks, why not? Turned out a wise move.

I bonded with "Medicus" (Doctor) Gaius Ruso as a character right away, nice guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Downie does an excellent job of showing that everything old is new again, at one point having Ruso go through the frustration of getting the hospital administrator to approve payment for a patient's eye operation by a London specialist. The mystery angle pretty much stayed in the background until the end of the book, with the focus on life in Roman Britain. Though it was a long book, things never felt bogged down; the comedic aspect were never over-the-top either.

Simon Vance's narration was a perfect fit for the material - can't wait to listen to the sequel!

I'm a sucker for anything set in Roman-occupied Britain. This is very much from the Roman side, but you get a bit of the natives' perspective, particularly the uneasy co-existence and the divisions between the more and less assimilated Britons. And it captures some of the ambivalence on the Roman side: while they look down on the Britons, they are Roman subjects and have legal rights.

It's a murder mystery, which is a nice change from most books set in this era, which tend to be military fiction. It's decent. It felt a little forced in places, and the ending is a bit "gloating evil genius confesses all." But on the whole, quite readable. And it was her first book; I may stick with the series since the reviews get better as it goes along.