Monday, February 11, 2008

Book review: Medicus, by Ruth Downie

TitleMedicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire
AuthorRuth Downie
Rating****
Tagsfiction, historical mystery, roman britain
Your reviewMedicus is Ruth Downey's first novel, and if she continues this good she'll have an excellent writing career. It is set in Roman Britain in the year Trajan died and Hadrian takes over, which makes it AD 117. Gaius Petreius Ruso is a doctor serving at a Roman army hospital in Deva (later Chester) . He winds up buying a British slave girl from a slave trader who was abusing her. She, of course, winds up turning his life upside down. Meanwhile a couple of girls at the nearby bar/whorehouse have shown up dead, and somehow everyone things that Ruso is investigating the murders - possibly including the murderer.

Nice characters, a decent plot, gives a nice sense of time and place. Recommended.
PublicationBloomsbury USA (2007), Hardcover, 400 pages
Publication date2007
ISBN1596912316 / 9781596912311

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