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.

Oh my gawd! I thoroughly enjoyed this read!

Thoughts on the Overall Book: I'm really glad I gave this book a go, because now I have found another historical series that I really love! "Medicus" is a somewhat quirky, easy to read historical fiction novel, and just the kind of book I love to sit down with before bed. I never thought I would enjoy a 'hospital drama' so much, but I really wouldn't put it in that category at all anyway. Number one, Ruso is an army surgeon who I always have much more respect for and can usually like, and two, it's light hearted, and not based around the hospital, so plus, plus.

Cover--Yea or Nay: I like the cover. It's obviously set in the Roman era, and it's simple, yet it looks like a mystery novel.

Characters: Okay, so I loved Ruso right off the bat. I adore dry witted characters, and even though this book wasn't in first person, it feels like it is because you're pretty much in Ruso's head. He's so good hearted, yet all this stuff happens to him because of it which totally makes for a sympathetic hero. I loved the quips between him and Valens. Ruth Downie writes men's relationships very well and can also tell truths about them only women would ever write about--such as the anti-cleanliness on their living quarters. Reading about how filthy their bachelor's quarters were and how they didn't care just made me crack up because I know all too well how true that is. I also really loved Tilla. She's just the kind of female protagonist I love to read about. She was capable of doing what she needed to, and yet she was never once annoying, though I wanted to shake her a couple times for listening to people she should have known better not to trust. But that all just made me sympathize with her in the end. Priscus was throughly fun to hate too. And though he wasn't a really evil baddie, the reader still wished to see Ruso get the better of him.

The Romance: There's not much at all, but it's definitely hinted (and expected) that Ruso and Tilla will have some sort of relationship in later books. And I support their romance because I genuinely care for them.

Writing Style: While not the most engaging mystery plot I have ever read, the characters were who really drove this story and made it enjoyable. You cared a lot for the characters. If I hadn't, I probably would have been more disappointed that there wasn't a better mystery plot line, but I really didn't feel cheated at all at the end of the book because of it. Ruth Downie's writing style is what really sold the book though, and made it work. It's filled with lovely wry humor that I adored, and is snappy, and engaging without being overly descriptive as some historical novels can be at times. I also appreciated that she addressed all the inaccuracies in the book in her author's note. As an author, and one who has dabbled in this time period and setting, I understand completely how hard it is to find real information for thorough research. The reader will notice the somewhat modern flair in the novel, but it is only going to make it a funner read unless you're a really stuffy person who shouldn't be reading anything but text books.

Problems/What bothered me: I really didn't have any complaints which made me really happy. Even though parts of this book take place in a brothel, nothing is described in detail. And for the people who don't like blood, there's not much of that either, considering this is a novel about army surgeons. I was really glad that the birthing scene was not detailed but even as it was, there was still too much detail for my liking. That is one of the few things that can make me want to throw up while reading.

Conclusion:4 stars, I really liked it, and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Recommended Audience: People who like an easy historical read would enjoy this. Also fans of the Falco novels would appreciate Ruso.

I wish I liked this book more than I did.

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.

A doctor accidently gets involved in a complicated mystery of murder, sex trafficking, and financial shenanigans because he, good diagnostician that he is, just can't stop noticing things or asking questions.

Set in Roman-Britain during the transition from Emperor Trajan to Emperor Harridan we get a in-your-face warts-and-all look at what "civilization" means in terms of both indoor heated plumbing and kidnapping for the purpose of a lifetime of sexual slavery.

Downie tells a good British amateur detective mystery - but she doesn't hold back punches when it comes to uncomfortable parallels to today with far too many people willing to overlook those in pain or throw their hands up and let "the system" take its course. She admits in her author's note she did her best to research the time period and had to fill in the many, many holes in the historical record with her imagination, but she does an excellent job making the time and place come alive and feel extremely relatable.

⭐️ 3.5 stars ⭐️

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.

Apparently according to Goodreads I read this years ago and gave a 3 star rating but no written review. For the life of me I dont remember reading it so I'll consider this re-read a first read.

I don't know why I gave it 3 stars. Nothing happens in the first 200 pages. I understand this is the first book in a series so some groundwork has to be done for the protagonist but it's also a whodunnit but instead we are treated to the main character's money problems and army camp politics (which is a little bit interesting, I confess).

I found myself skipping pages. Never a good sign. Still, it's not a horrible book so I'll downgrade my original rating to 2 stars but saving it from the dreaded 1 star.

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.

Army doctor Ruso is serving in Roman-occupied Britain under very trying circumstances. He faces near poverty, a micro-managing Chief Administrative Officer, the loss of his household servants, mysterious deaths of prostitutes from the local bar, a killer, and the unexpected purchase of a beautiful British slave girl, with whom he is trying not to fall in love.

How not to buy a slave with a broken arm
"If you don't get help for her soon, this slave is going to die. I'll take her off your hands."
"She's a good strong girl, sir. She'll perk up in a day or two. I'll knock a bit off the price for that arm."
"What price? You told me she was lazy and useless."
"Useless at cleaning, sir, but an excellent cook. And what's more . . ."—
Innocens raised his free arm to steady the girl as he leaned forward in a haze of fish sauce and bellowed over more hammering "just the thing for a healthy young man like yourself, sir! Ripe as a peach and never been touched!"
"I'm not interested in touching her!" shouted Ruso, just as the noise stopped.
Innocens was smiling again. Ruso suppressed an urge to grab him by the neck and shake him.
"What would you like to offer, sir?"
Ruso hesitated. "I'll give you fifty denarii," he muttered.
Innocens's jowls collapsed in disappointment. He shrugged the shoulder not being used to prop up his merchandise. "I wish I could, sir. I can hardly afford to feed her. But the debt I took her for was four thousand."
It was a ridiculous lie. Even if it wasn't, Ruso didn't have four thousand denarii. He didn't even have four hundred. It had been an expensive summer.
"Fifty's more than she's worth, and you know it," he insisted. "Look at her."
"Fifty-five!" offered a voice from the scaffolding.
"What?" put in his companion. "You heard the man, she's a virgin. Fifty-six!"
Innocens scowled at them. "One thousand and she's yours, sir."
"Fifty or nothing."
The trader shook his head, unable to believe that any fool would offer all his money at the first bid. Ruso, remembering with a jolt that payday was still three weeks away, was barely able to believe it himself.
"Two hundred, sir. I can't go below two hundred. You'll ruin me."
"Go on!" urged the chorus from the scaffolding. "Two hundred for this lovely lady!"
Ruso looked up at the workmen. "Buy her yourselves if you like. I only came out for a bottle of bath oil."
At that moment the girl's body jerked. A feeble cough emerged from her lips. Her eyelids drifted shut. A slow silver drool emerged from her mouth and came to rest in shining bubbles on the sodden wool of her tunic. Claudius Innocens cleared his throat.
"Will that fifty be cash, then, sir?"

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Greek philosophy
Ruso lay on the borrowed bed and stared into the gloom that hid the cracks in the ceiling plaster, reflecting that Socrates was a wise man. Surveying the goods on a market stall, the great one was said to have remarked, "What a lot of things a man doesn't need!"
What a lot of things a man doesn't need. That thought had comforted Ruso over the last few months. The more you own, he had told himself, the more you have to worry about. Possessions are a burden.
The kind of possessions which needed to be regularly fed were a double burden. They were only worth having if they earned their keep by doing the laundry, or barking at burglars, or catching mice, or carrying you somewhere, or chirping in a way that your ex-wife used to find entertaining. It was a pity Socrates hadn't thought to add, Which is why I never shop after drinking on an empty stomach.

Learning to appreciate British beer
Ruso took the dripping cup of beer and wondered whether to clear up the dishes, or whether to wait and see how long it would be before Valens did.
Valens squinted into his own beer, rescued something with a forefinger, and flicked it over his shoulder. A rush of inquisitive puppies followed its course.
"How long have you been a beer drinker?"
"I'm not. Some native gave it to me as a thank-you for treating one of his children."
Ruso frowned into his drink. "Are you sure he was grateful?"
"Smells like goat's piss, I know. But you'll get used to it."
Ruso tried another mouthful and wondered how long getting used to it would take.

"Visit Sunny Britannia"
Valens's letters had made Britannia sound entertaining. The islands, apparently, were bursting with six-foot warrior women and droopy-mustached, poetry-spouting fanatics who roamed the misty mountains stirring up quarrelsome tribesmen in the guise of religion.
His own observation of Britannia now led Ruso to suspect that Valens had deliberately lured him here to relieve the boredom.

An open air market
"Fresh fish, sir?" A woman who was out of breath from pushing a cart up the slope lifted a cloth to display glistening silver bodies. She grinned, showing a gap where her front teeth should have been. "Just caught in time for dinner!"
Ruso shook his head.
In the space of a hundred paces he also declined a bucket of mussels, a jar of pepper, a delivery of coal, a set of tableware, an amphora of wine, a bolt of cloth to make the finest bedspread in Deva, some indefinable things in the shape of small sausages, and an introduction to an exotic dancer. Stepping onto the quay, he dodged a trolley being pushed by a small boy who couldn't see over it. Behind him a voice shouted, "Tray of plums, sir?"
It was comforting to know that he still had the appearance of a man with money to spend.

Hospital administration and how to save money
"Where's the clean linen kept?"
"Third door on the left, sir." The orderly disappeared into a side corridor.
Ruso flipped the latch and collided with the door, which had failed to open as expected. He rattled it to no avail, then realized there was a keyhole. When the orderly reappeared with an empty tray he said.
"Where's the key?"
"Officer Priscus will have it, sir."
"He took the key to the linen closet?"
"Officer Priscus is in charge of all the keys, sir."
"That's ridiculous!"
Ruso contemplated the silent, locked door of the linen closet. He had yet to meet Officer Priscus, but already he hated him. The man seemed to have turned hospital administration into an art form—something incomprehensible, overpriced, and useless. In the meantime, a sick girl was huddled in a corner of the changing room, facing a pile of wet towels.
Ruso stood back, contemplated the latch for a moment, and moved. A splintering crash echoed down the deserted corridor. He helped himself before anyone could arrive to see who had just bypassed the hospital administration with a military boot.

First rule with women: Get their name right
"By the way, I dropped in on your Tilla just now. Since you were too busy."
Ruso frowned. "My what?"
"Tilla," repeated Valens. When there was no reply he shook his head sadly. "Gods above, Ruso, you are hopeless. What have I told you? First rule with women: Get the name right. Anyway, it looks as though you've got away with that arm. Too early to say whether it'll be of any use, of course."
"Are you sure she's called Tilla?" persisted Ruso. "It doesn't look anything like that on the note of sale."
Valens shrugged. "She said that's what you called her."
"I didn't call her anything. I can't pronounce her name. It's got about fifteen syllables stuffed with g's and h's in odd places."
"She seems to think you told her she'd be Tilla from now on. She seemed quite cheerful about it."
"Did she?" There was no justice in the ways of the world. Ruso, who had saved the girl's life, was rewarded with weeping and "Let me die." Valens, who would have fixed her broken arm with a sharp saw, was granted a pleasant chat.

How Tilla got her name
"Utilis, said Ruso suddenly. "Useful. Her Latin's a bit shaky. She got into a bit of a state last night. Thought she was never going to get better and wanted to be off with the ancestors, or something. I told her she'd be utilis to me."
Tilla!

The joys of house hunting
Several would-be landlords had chalked up advertisements on the amphitheater walls.
The smell of urine and old cabbage stew, which hit Ruso as soon as the first door opened, failed to mask the personal odor of the toothless crone who announced,
"He an't here, I dunno where he is, and he an't done nothing."
"I'll keep looking," said Ruso.
"Did have," said the next one. "We did have a room. Somebody should have rubbed the notice off."
The third room was still having its walls plastered, but the owner's wife promised it would be ready by nightfall.
"How much?"
She told him. Ruso laughed and walked away, and she let him go.

The servants always know
"Somebody ought to ask the servants what happened to her," ventured the plump woman, dabbling her fingers in the bowl held by a patient slave and drying them on the towel over his arm. "Servants always know everything, you know. It's amazing."
As Ruso dipped his hands into the warm water, he glanced at the face of the slave holding the bowl. The man's expression gave nothing away.

A most persistent clerk
It was with neither joy nor enthusiasm that he opened the front door to urgent knocking shortly after dawn and found his clerk calling to ask whether there was anything he wanted done.
"What I want done," explained Ruso, summoning all the patience he could muster and wondering what sort of a clerk could fail to understand a staff rotation, "is for you to push off and not bother me until I tell you to. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir."
"Dismissed."
"Yes, sir," replied the man, saluting, but instead of pushing off as ordered he remained on the doorstep.
"I said, dismissed."
"Yes, sir."
"So?"
"Are you ordering me not to come, sir?"
"Of course I'm ordering you not to come! Is there something the matter with your hearing?"
"No, sir."
Ruso leaned against the door frame and yawned. "Albanus," he said, "are you deliberately trying to annoy me?"
The man looked shocked. "Oh no, sir."
"Do you want to be charged with insubordination?"
"Oh no, sir!"
"Then what is the matter with you?"
Albanus's shoulders seemed to shrink as he glanced around to make sure there was no one listening in the street. "Officer Priscus's orders, sir."
"Officer Priscus," explained Ruso, "has seconded you to me. So you do what I tell you."
"Yes, sir."
"So what's the problem?"
"Sir, he's my superior. So when he tells me to report to you in the morning, I have to do it."
Ruso sighed. "He only meant the first morning."
Albanus shook his head. "No, sir. He told me again yesterday."
Ruso ran a hand through his hair. "I'll talk to him. Now get lost."
Albanus nodded eagerly. "Shall I get lost anywhere in particular, sir?"

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Take delight in a community full of interwoven relationships between army doctors, soldiers, slave girls, and hairy locals - all trying to live on the edge of the Roman empire.

Enjoy!

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?)
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A couple favorites for "then" - Pauline Edge and George Shipway