A nice historical mystery set in Roman Britain. It has a lighthearted, anachronistic tone similar to that of Lindsey Davis's Falco books - it even begins with an amusing dramatis personae. There isn't a comparable wealth of historical detail, but I liked the protagonist, a gruff army doctor who is not eager to play the role of detective.

The book is well written, and I very much enjoyed the setting. The mystery plot was okay, while the romance didn't really work for me. Still, this was a quick and entertaining read and I look forward to the next book.

ETA Sept. 2014: The romance that didn't work for me here has evolved into an interesting relationship in subsequent books.

4 stars- English Ebook

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.

Deceptively understated writing that follows the daily comings and goings of the title character, a Roman Legionnaire who happens to be a medical doctor in a Brittanica outpost in the far-reaching Roman Empire.

He is a solemn man, whose life is totally filled by his job. His more easy going room-mate, the handsome one, Valens is always urging him to live it up a bit and find himself some distractions.

Rusa, however, is divorced from the ambitious Claudia, whom he has left behind in Africa and is anxious to rise within the ranks to become CMO of the hospital, a position also sought by Valens.

Rusa is in financial straits, primarily the result of poor money management by his now deceased father and his spend-thrift step mother. He is attempting to write a Concise Medical Handbook that he hopes will also help strengthen his pocketbook.

He is, you see, almost to end of the last pay period and his brother and other family are attempting to hang onto the family vineyards in Gaul. He must send them money for their living expenses as well as support himself.

While walking through the streets of Deva on his way back to the hospital, contemplating his position and also the mystery of the suspicious death of a woman pulled from the river and deposited in his infirmary, he comes upon a slave dealer and an almost dead female slave who is bloodied and appears to have a broken arm.

Though he tries to avoid becoming involved in the workings of the town and its native inhabitants he finds himself using the last of his money to purchase this slave and take her to the hospital where he sets her arm.

So begins a series of seemingly unrelated events with which he becomes involved, not the least of which is this new unanticipated responsibility, the young blonde slave he calls Tilla.

The short chapters, interesting history of Legion life, the medicine of the times, the interaction between Romans and Britons all keep the story moving until its final revelations, which are not entirely surprising though more complex than expected.

This is the first in a series of novels telling the story of Rome and its occupation of Britain. It promises to continue interesting and unusual and worth reading.

If this is your genre you like this story. If you never try-out this genre start with this one.

2019 bk 292. Shout out to Goodreads reviewer Martin for introducing Medicus and Gaius Petreius Ruso to me. I tracked down a copy and thoroughly enjoyed this doctor of the Roman Army who is stationed in Roman Britain. Ruth Downie writes of a man who is in sorrow, his father's death revealed a house of cards based on loans that now need to be repaid, his wife has left him, a friend talked him into a transfer from sunny Africa to drizzling, colder Britain, and he has ended up with a battered slave that he never intended to purchase. In between all of this are other factors at work, corrupted officials, illicitate sales of Roman citizens, bad food, and mice. Downie does an excellent job of adding a light hand, bits of humor, to lighten what was and still is a serious problem in the world and resolves the mystery in a way that lightens a little bit of Ruso's load. I'm looking forward to the second in the series.

I enjoyed this story of Ruso, a medicus or doctor in the Roman Army, set in forth century Veda, now Chester in the UK. The medical side is astonishing, then there are some very familiar themes - corruption, hiding of misdeeds, sex trafficking, bullying, nothing much has changed in the human race. It’s got a good pace, lively dialogue, great creation of setting , lots to enjoy. I’m going to read more in this series.

Five stars, five, and again five! Hurray for Medicus: it's the page-turner I've been looking for for a long time. I read it in an entire day because I couldn't put it down.

Set in Roman Empire-era Brittania, this is the story of reluctant hero , Gaius Petrius Ruso, a doctor in the local army hospital, who turns detective very much against his will. Humorous, lighthearted, colorful... This is Downie's first novel, and I hope she's planning a whole series of Ruso mysteries!

A very enjoyable read. Probably the best place to start the series, as it gives a better understanding of the setting and characters than the later novels. I started with #6, and it was a little confusing at first. The main character is a doctor who gets involved in solving the murders of two prostitutes after one of them shows up dead in his hospital. It's not a heavy detective story as I find the culture clash between Britons and the occupying Romans is more the central part of the story.

A highly enjoyable and very fast read in this first book of the Gaius Petreius Ruso series. Loved Medicus, and look forward to the rest of the books in the series. A supremely fast read of a book about 385 pages long with 79 chapters - so you can see the story really moves along and it was a real page turner for me.
This is a mystery series set in Roman times, with the hero being Ruso who is a doctor that is stationed in Great Britain for this book. He stumbles across a young slave girl being beaten in the town square and who obviously is unconscious and whom also has a fractured arm. He eventually buys the girl, and because he cannot communicate with her gives her the name Tilla. He also is involved with some corpses that are brought to his hospital and so he gets personally involved in trying to figure out who were the dead people and who killed them.
Love the authenticity of the book, and the author does a super job of detailing the hospital, the town and fort where it is located and the local customs of Britain and the way the Romans felt about the Brits and vice versa. Just an enjoyable read with a very satisfactory ending, and an ending that will keep me coming back for more!

This has to be one of the best historical mysteries I've read in years, especially considering it's a first novel. Ranks right up there with Kenneth Cameron's THE FRIGHTENED MAN. The protagonist Ruso is the sort of reluctant (nearly anti-) hero I find both believable and enjoyable, and his back-and-forth with his housekeeper Tilla makes it all the more entertaining. Downie has clearly done her homework, and in a nice afterword, makes a point of letting the reader know about the parts that needed making up, as research couldn't glean any answers about certain aspects of Roman society in early Britannia.

I'm part way in to the next one in the series, TERRA INCOGNITA, and enjoying the hell out of it, as well.

YMMV-

Brian Thornton

Bettie's Books

Medicus and the Disappearing Dancing Girls is the first book in a Roman-era gently comical historical mystery series about an army doctor posted to Brittania and his stroppy slave girl Tilla. It was originally published in 2007; I picked it up from a book fair in 2013 and it’s been sitting on my “to-read” bookcase ever since. This year I’m trying to read more treebooks, so picked it somewhat at random. I was interested in learning more about the medical treatments of the time, but this focussed more on the hero’s domestic, financial and career dramas and a rather jumbled murder investigation.

Gaius Petrius Ruso is a recently divorced army surgeon whose charming but lazy friend has persuaded to move to Deva (=Chester) to work with him at the 20th legion’s base hospital and share his house. After drinking a little too much wine post night shift, he intervenes to stop a slave trader beating a skinny young British woman with a broken arm - and ends up buying her. Unable to keep her at the hospital, he persuades a local madam to lodge her in a brothel, and learns that two employees have recently gone missing - and is one found dead in the river. Also Ruso wants is to write the textbook that will make him rich and find something decent to eat for dinner, but with a never ending queue of patients, an uptight hospital administrator watching his every move and all the locals convinced he’s the man to solve the murder, he’s going to be kept very busy indeed…

This had a great premise but suffered from a slow pace, too many boring details about irrelevant things, not enough medicine for a book about a doctor, and cheesy dialogue that sounded like an episode of Eastenders. I liked the snippets of information about Roman army life and what they were doing in Britain, but the mystery wasn’t that interesting, and I didn’t really care about either main character. There are some dark elements - rape of a minor & forced sexual slavery are referred to obliquely and a dog is killed “off-camera” but there’s also plenty of wry humour. Repeatedly hearing about Ruso’s financial woes got tedious, and we learn little about Tilla’s background or how she ended up becoming a slave. I believe this was the author’s first novel, so might consider reading another if I find one going cheap, as there are seven more in the series - so I presume they must improve.

I like mystery, and I like historical fiction... this was awesome. The characters are interesting, and the plot is pretty twisty. Not only does Ruth Downie convey the era amazingly well - but she handles the crazy Roman politics too! This was great storytelling, with the perfect amount of humor to make the characters real. Loved it!

Fantastic mystery about a Roman army Medic (Ruso) that just can let things rest when he sees a problem, injustice or human cruelty. Loved this and am glad that there are 6 more in the series to read.