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Caveat Emptor A Novel of the Roman Empire The Medicus Series Ruth Downie 9781596916081 Books

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Caveat Emptor A Novel of the Roman Empire The Medicus Series Ruth Downie 9781596916081 Books

Ruth Downie takes her "Medicus" series to a new level of complexity and intrigue with "Caveat Emptor". This fourth book in the highly entertaining series set in Roman-ruled Britain in the Second Century AD has protagonist Gaius Petreius Ruso and his now-wife Tilla back in Londinium after a long visit to his family home in southern Gaul. Ruso, no longer an army medic, is looking for work and reluctantly accepts an assignment from the Procurator of the province to investigate the disappearance of a tax collector and a substantial amount of tax revenue from the nearby town of Verulamium (modern St. Albans). With Tilla and the missing tax collector's wife and child in tow, Ruso moves his investigation to Verulamium, to all appearances a very law-abiding and largely Romanized settlement where the local Britons talk with Babbit-like pride about their town and province. The town fathers are not happy about the possibility of criminal scandal that has come with Ruso the Investigator, and as the bodies of the tax collector and his brother turn up, civic hostility becomes increasingly dangerous for Ruso and his family and colleagues.

Author Downie has crafted a very clever plot that is slowly revealed through Ruso's investigation in classic police procedural fashion albeit in the historic context in which the mystery is set. The conclusion is never predictable and is revealed only in the last few pages of the book.

While the plot is clever and skillfully spun out, what I liked even more about "Caveat Emptor" was the growing complexity of the characters. The relationship between Ruso and his Briton wife Tilla is extremely complicated. To be sure, there are masculine/feminine differences at work, but this is also a pairing of two extremely different people, coming from two very different cultures (cosmopolitan vs. tribal). The two are shown to be strongly committed to each other, but they are rarely in agreement about anything--their lives together, relationships with others, how to investigate a crime, etc. That personal tension is consistently written into the entire run of the story and, for the most part, strengthens it and brings a sense of historic reality to the tale.

I also thought that Downie provided a good balance of mystery story vs. historic detail in "Caveat Emptor". The plot had a modern feel to it, with its emphasis on human relationships, greed, petty power struggles, and bureaucratic bad behavior. But there is enough historic material here--living conditions, Roman medicine, transportation, burial rites, tribal relationships, etc.--to make the story original and entertaining for the reader who chooses this genre for those qualities.

A very fine book in a good series that gets more interesting with each successive episode. Recommended.


Tags : Caveat Emptor: A Novel of the Roman Empire (The Medicus Series) [Ruth Downie] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. In her fourth novel, Ruth Downie brings to life the corruption and treachery of Roman-occupied Britain,Ruth Downie,Caveat Emptor: A Novel of the Roman Empire (The Medicus Series),Bloomsbury USA,1596916087,Mystery & Detective - Historical,Physicians;Rome;Fiction.,Romans;Great Britain;Fiction.,Treasure troves;Fiction.,ENGLISH HISTORICAL FICTION,ENGLISH MYSTERY & SUSPENSE FICTION,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Mystery & Detective Historical,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Fiction-Coming of Age,Fiction-Mystery & Detective,GENERAL,General Adult,Great Britain,Great BritainBritish Isles,Historical - General,Mystery & Detective Historical,MysterySuspense,Physicians,Romans,Rome,Treasure troves,United States

Caveat Emptor A Novel of the Roman Empire The Medicus Series Ruth Downie 9781596916081 Books Reviews

Ruso and Tilla return to Britain married and jobless. Valens has found him a job not as a medicus but as an investigator looking for two missing men and the tax money they were supposedly delivering to London. The pregnant companion of one of the missing man delivers with Tilla's help after reporting the disappearance and they are subsequently adopted as her cause. Ruso of course can't get her to stay out of it. Unruly townspeople pretending to be perfect Romans make life very difficult. Pace seems to have picked up some as the series continues.
The search for a new job back in Britannia draws Ruso into a new assignment as an official investigator. Twists and turns abound in this fourth book of the series that includes a murder or three, a red haired orphan, a nearsighted teenage government official, a bunch of other corrupt ones all trying to pull their own strings of power, an ever headstrong and well meaning Tilla, along with the reappearance of characters from past books. They all help and hinder Ruso's investigation to get to the root of missing tax money in a nearby town.

The wonderful thing about Ruth Downie's series isn't all the twist and turns as the story moves forward, often with a few surprises thrown in right at the end. Nor is it the skillful way she brings to light the culture and mores of ancient Rome. Rather, it's the richness of her characters as they blunder about, each in their own self serving ways, that appeals to me most. They make for great tongue-in-cheek irony and a super fun read.
Gaius Petreius Ruso and Tilla, newly married, return to Britannia after a visit to his family in Gaul. They have their wedding gifts all packed but, having left the Roman legions to travel to Gaul, Ruso finds himself in Londinium without a job. His fellow Medicus, Valens, has been unable to find a Medicus position for Ruso but has found him a job as an investigator for the local procurator. Ruso is not terribly happy since he is NOT an investigator and feels wholly inadequate to do the job.

It would seem that a very pregnant lady has appeared at the procurator's office to report her lover, the local tax collector, missing. Ruso is sent to a neighboring town to locate the man who, with his brother, has disappeared while on the way to Londinium with the tax monies collected in Verulamium.
Of course, the chief concern of the politician's is the location of the taxes but when the tax collector's murdered body without any evidence of the the money is found, the plot, as they say, thickens.

Seems that even in ancient times crime and vice in all its forms existed as often as today. infidelity,illegitimacy, jealousy, thievery, murder, oh, yes, and counterfeiting all existed. And then, as today, corruption at high and low levels was intertwined. All of which, along with various " barbarian" and Roman factions muddying the situation, make Ruso's life miserable. As if those things were not enough, various attempts on the lives of various characters, insolent servants and Tilla's headstrong disobedience of Ruso's instructions in an effort to held, threaten to drive him mad.

But as usual, all of the various dead end threads eventually get woven into a more or less satisfying solution. The plot is well developed and complex enough that the reader is just as confused and frustrated as the hero. The characters are realistically complex and at times, just as Ruso, the reader sometimes trusts and at other times distrusts the same person. All of this makes the puzzle very intriguing and keeps the reader turning the page to see what happens next.

At the end, also, as a result of Tilla's loyalty to her Britannic fellows and Ruso's loyalty to Rome, as her desire to stay in Britain and his growing desire to return to Gaul, as his need to find a position as a Medicus increases with little opportunity in Londinium, the couple finds themselves at a crucial point in their relationship. Tilla wonders if they should part and Ruso find himself another wife. After four adventures with them and having watched their partnership grow and flourish, it is a decision that is as difficult for the reader to ponder as it is for them.

Where will the road lead in the next book? I'm anxious to know.
Ruth Downie takes her "Medicus" series to a new level of complexity and intrigue with "Caveat Emptor". This fourth book in the highly entertaining series set in Roman-ruled Britain in the Second Century AD has protagonist Gaius Petreius Ruso and his now-wife Tilla back in Londinium after a long visit to his family home in southern Gaul. Ruso, no longer an army medic, is looking for work and reluctantly accepts an assignment from the Procurator of the province to investigate the disappearance of a tax collector and a substantial amount of tax revenue from the nearby town of Verulamium (modern St. Albans). With Tilla and the missing tax collector's wife and child in tow, Ruso moves his investigation to Verulamium, to all appearances a very law-abiding and largely Romanized settlement where the local Britons talk with Babbit-like pride about their town and province. The town fathers are not happy about the possibility of criminal scandal that has come with Ruso the Investigator, and as the bodies of the tax collector and his brother turn up, civic hostility becomes increasingly dangerous for Ruso and his family and colleagues.

Author Downie has crafted a very clever plot that is slowly revealed through Ruso's investigation in classic police procedural fashion albeit in the historic context in which the mystery is set. The conclusion is never predictable and is revealed only in the last few pages of the book.

While the plot is clever and skillfully spun out, what I liked even more about "Caveat Emptor" was the growing complexity of the characters. The relationship between Ruso and his Briton wife Tilla is extremely complicated. To be sure, there are masculine/feminine differences at work, but this is also a pairing of two extremely different people, coming from two very different cultures (cosmopolitan vs. tribal). The two are shown to be strongly committed to each other, but they are rarely in agreement about anything--their lives together, relationships with others, how to investigate a crime, etc. That personal tension is consistently written into the entire run of the story and, for the most part, strengthens it and brings a sense of historic reality to the tale.

I also thought that Downie provided a good balance of mystery story vs. historic detail in "Caveat Emptor". The plot had a modern feel to it, with its emphasis on human relationships, greed, petty power struggles, and bureaucratic bad behavior. But there is enough historic material here--living conditions, Roman medicine, transportation, burial rites, tribal relationships, etc.--to make the story original and entertaining for the reader who chooses this genre for those qualities.

A very fine book in a good series that gets more interesting with each successive episode. Recommended.