Memento Mori by Ruth Downie

Memento Mori: A Crime Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie --- 410 pages including Author's Note, Further Reading, and Acknowledgements.

Memento Mori is the eighth installment in Ruth Downie's historical mystery series set in 2nd Century A.D. Roman Britain that began with Medicus. Her sleuth is a Roman doctor Gaius Petreius Ruso, who was born in the Roman province of Gaul (France), trained as a medicus, and served with the Roman legions in Britain. At the start of the series he rescues a British girl from a brutal slave dealer, and winds up marrying her. Part of the appeal of the series is the very different ways that Ruso and his wife, Tilla (whose British name is Darlughdacha), see the world and the people around them. This very often puts them at cross-purposes, and contributes to the humor of the series.

Tilla is stubborn, independent, and impulsive, and her behavior is definitely not what's expected of a respectable Roman wife. But Ruso is equally unable to maintain the role of the stern and stoic Roman paterfamilias. Now retired from military service, Ruso and Tilla have tried living with his family in Gaul, seeking their fortune in Rome, and are staying with Tilla's family on a farm in the northern wilds of Britain near where Hadrian's Wall is under construction.

In Memento Mori Ruso responds to an urgent plea from his former colleague and best friend, Valens, who's been accused of murdering his estranged wife, Serena, and dumping her body in the sacred hot springs of Aqua Sulis (modern Bath). This is  not only a crime but a dreadful sacrilege, and could destroy the town's prosperity, as many Romans and Britons seek healing in the sacred waters. Tilla of course will not allow Ruso to go alone, and so the entire family travels  to Aquae Sulis to exonerate Valens.

They discover that Valens is hiding because his father-in-law, (retired) Centurion Pertinax, is  determined to track Valens down and see him tried and executed. Ruso learns that there was also a disastrous fire the night of the murder that destroyed a lodging house and left three guests dead in their beds.  There are rumors that the fire was deliberately set, and that the local veterans' association lost a lot of money they had invested in the project to build a second shrine and healing pool on the site. The engineer for the project, Terentius, has gone missing.  To make matters even more complicated, Terentius was also Serena's lover, and she was asking Valens for a divorce so that she could marry Terentius.

Ruso finds his friend, but to his dismay cannot entirely believe Valens' protestations of innocence. Events escalate rapidly, but Ruso survives to solve the puzzle. Another entertaining outing with Ruso, Tilla and Company.

Click HERE to read the review in Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from the Italophile bog.

Click HERE to read the review from Open Letters Review.

Vita Brevis by Ruth Downie

Vita Brevis: A Gaius Ruso Mystery by Ruth Downie --- 368 pages including Author's Note

This is the seventh book in Downie's Medicus series of mysteries set in the waning years of the Roman Empire.

Gaius Petreius Ruso, formerly a medical officer for the 20th Legion serving in Britannia, his British wife Tilla and their adopted baby daughter Mara have upped stakes and moved to the city of Rome.  Ruso has accepted an offer from his former tribune, Publius Accius, to exchange the (relative) security of an army career and come along and seek his fortune in the heart of the Imperium.

Unfortunately, Accius proves to be an unfortunate choice for a patron, as his aristocratic family does not stand high in the favor of the current Emperor Hadrian.  Accius had hoped to be appointed to a high office to begin his climb up the ladder to success; instead he has been put in charge of the municipal department of street cleaning. So Ruso has been left to mostly fend for himself, trying to find a medical post to tide his family over while he waits for Accius to deliver on his big promises.

What Accius finally delivers is a temporary job filling in for Dr. Kleitos, a Greek freedman who's been called out of town on family business. Kleitos is also the trusted personal physician of one of Rome's biggest real estate developers, Horatius Balbus --- a very wealthy man who just happens to be the father of the the young woman Accius wants to marry.

But Ruso tells himself it's a start, and a chance to move his family into decent lodgings instead of the bug-infested slum they've been renting (from that selfsame Horatius Balbus). What neither Ruso or Tilla expect is the dead man they find stuffed into a barrel that is sitting on the porch of their new apartment when they arrive. Nor did they anticipate that Dr. Kleitos, his family, and all of their belongings (including the records of Kleitos' medical practice) would vanish into the night, leaving behind nothing but a cryptic note "Be careful who you trust."

Meanwhile Horatius Balbus demands that Ruso continue to supply him with the "theriac" --- a concoction which is supposed to build up resistance to poisons --- that Kleitos had prescribed. But without Kleitos' medical notes Ruso has no way to duplicate the prescription.  He attempts to put together a harmless substitute to satisfy his demanding patient while he consults with another practitioner. But then, to his horror, Horatio Balbus collapses and dies in the street while returning from a dinner in the house of a business rival.

Is Ruso responsible for the death of his patient? Or was Horatius Balbus poisoned by his rival? Or was he murdered by someone else who intends for Ruso to take the blame?  Behind the glittering facade of Imperial Rome lurks a world of danger for those burdened by conscience like Ruso and Tilla.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read a review from the Italophile blog.

Semper Fidelis by Ruth Downie

Semper Fidelis: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie --- 330 pages

Fifth book in Downie's entertaining historical mystery series about Roman Army doctor Gaius Petreius Ruso and his strong-willed British wife Tilla, on duty with the Roman Legions occupying 2nd century Britannia.

Upon rejoining the 20^th Legion at Eboracum, Ruso is determined to settle into his duties as chief medical officer and forswear involvement in any more of the investigations that have had such a disastrous effect on his career and prospects. Unfortunately, he discovers an unusually high number of suicides, unexplained deaths and accidental injuries among the legion's new crop of native British recruits showing up at the hospital. Pera, the young medic in charge before his arrival, is a former pupil of Ruso's and seems both relieved and strangely reluctant to answer his old mentor's questions.    

Ruso's wife, Tilla, has her own sources of information among the unofficial wives and families of the legionaries, and what they have to say does not match up with the official medical records either. Ruso wonders if the impending visit of the Emperor Hadrian and his wife adequately explains why the 20th's tribune (commanding officer) Accius, is so determined to resist any suggestion that all is not well with the legion. 

The veteran Centurion Geminus, in charge of the new recruits, and counting down the weeks to his own retirement from the Legion, also takes a dim view of Ruso's persistent questions. When Geminus is found in a ditch with his throat cut, Ruso finds himself accused of murder. 

Tilla, meanwhile, makes use of a tenuous connection with the Empress Sabina, in her efforts to discover the true murderer of Geminus and vindicate her husband.

As always, a fascinating concoction of historical fact and fiction.

Click HERE to read a review of Semper Fidelis from the Historical Novel Society.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus.

Click HERE to read an interview with Ruth Downie from the Sleuthsayers web site.

Persona Non Grata by Ruth Downie

Persona Non Grata: ANovel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie --- 348 pages

Third novel in Ruth Downie's entertaining series of historical mysteries set on the frontier of the declining Roman Empire during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian.

Gaius Ruso works as a contract medicus or doctor for the Twentieth Legion in the wilds of Britannia, so he can send money home to his family in southern Gaul to pay off the mountain of debts left behind by his late father. One day he receives a terse message from his brother Lucius, demanding his immediate return home. So Ruso wrangles several months of emergency leave and sets off for Nemausus, accompanied by his British housekeeper (and lover) Tilla (Darlughdacha of the Corionotatae of the Brigantes).

But when he arrives home Ruso is greeted not with relief but with consternation --- it seems that Lucius not only did not summon him but in actuality Ruso's presence is likely to make a bad situation worse. There is an arcane Roman law that says a Roman citizen engaged on public service in a foreign country cannot be sued for debts at home. Furthermore, despite his best intentions, Ruso has never quite gotten around to breaking the news to his family that he has acquired a British (barbarian) companion. And his stepmother is convinced that the best way to solve the family's financial problems is for Ruso to immediately marry the wealthy widow next door.

But that's only the beginning of Ruso's woes. It turns out that the family's chief creditor and instigator of the suit that is threatening them with ruin, a weasel-faced fellow called Serverus, is also the less than desirable second husband of Ruso's ex-wife Claudia.  Serverus arrives on Ruso's doorstep to discuss a settlement, only to collapse, declaring that he has been poisoned. In order to protect himself and his family from ruin, Ruso needs to figure out who murdered Severus and more importantly, why.

Meanwhile Tilla is feeling lonely and a little lost, far from her own people and country, and not very welcomed by Ruso's relations, who look down their noses at the barbarian. When one of the household slaves is kind to her, Tilla goes off at Galla's invitation to meet her "family," and has her first encounter with the followers of Christos.

The plot also includes a lovelorn gladiator and the hot pursuit of a couple of villains through the catacombs of the local amphitheater in the middle of gladiatorial games. Downie gets better with every book.

Click HERE and HERE for two reviews of Persona Non Grata.

Terra Incognita by Ruth Downie

Terra Incognita: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie --- 384 pages

It is spring in the year 118, and medicus (doctor) Gaius Petreius Ruso has been stationed in Deva, in the Roman province of Britannia, for eight eventful months. Ruso would like to escape the unwelcome notoriety created by his reluctant investigation into the murders of local prostitutes,  He also wants to please his volatile slave, Tilla, by indulging her wish to visit her tribe, the Corionotatae, near the Roman outpost of Coria (present day Corbridge, Northumberland). So Ruso volunteers to join a contingent of the Twentieth Legion seconded to reinforce Rome's tenuous control over the restive frontier at Hadrian's Wall. 

But Ruso discovers Coria is no refuge for a man seeking a quiet life and anonymity.  The northern tribes still remember the free days before the Romans occupied their lands. Although some have adapted to Roman ways, many more are biding their time to throw off the Roman yoke.

Left to her own devices, Tilla has private scores of her own to settle: with the hated Votadini chieftain who murdered her family and carried her off into slavery; with the uncle who has Romanized and prospered.Worse still, by Ruso's reckoning, Tilla is championing the innocence of a former sweetheart who stands accused of murdering a Roman soldier. 

Meanwhile Ruso is pressed into deputizing for the  resident medicus, Thessalus, said to be suffering strange delusions.  Ruso is horrified to learn that Thessalus's chief delusion is that he murdered the soldier.  Then he learns the army suspects Tilla and her old flame are consorting with the mysterious Stag Man, a native leader fomenting rebellion. Worse, in order to exculpate Tilla, it appears Ruso will also have to prove his rival innocent—and the army wrong—by discovering the real murderer. 

By the time Ruso manages to sort it all out (with Tilla's determined assistance), both of them are glad to leave Coria behind --- but have they left their chance for happiness together behind as well? Once again Downie combines mystery, history, romance and comedy with a deft hand.

Terra Incognita is the second volume in Downie's Medicus series of historical mysteries set in Roman Britain during the declining years of the Roman Empire. 

Click HERE to read  Downie's blog post, "The Real Rianorix," about one of the main characters in Terra Incognita.

Click HERE to find more information about Corbridge and the remnants of the ancient Roman fort of Coria.

Medicus by Ruth Downie

Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie --- 386 pages

Gaius Petreius Ruso is a divorced and down-on his luck army doctor who has made the rash decision to improve his fortunes in a remote outpost of the Roman Empire, namely Britannia.  His arrival in Deva (now known as Chester, England) does little to improve his mood. After a thirty six hour shift as the only doctor on duty at the army hospital, in a moment of sheer exhaustion he recklessly rescues an injured slave girl, Tilla, from the hands of her abusive owner.

Now he has a new problem: a slave who won’t talk, can’t cook, and drags Ruso from one scrape into another.  Before he knows what's happened, Ruso finds himself investigating the deaths of several slaves who disappeared from a local brothel much patronized by the army, when he should be devoting his spare time to writing his Concise Guide to Military First Aid, the project that he hopes will repair his battered fortunes and dig his family farm back home in Gaul out of debt.

How has he come to this, Ruso wonders. Onlya few years ago he rescued the late Emperor Trajan from a collapsed building during an earthquake in Antioch, Then his prospects looked rosy; how has he fallen to this: overworked, underpaid, ridden with debt, and caught between the ruthless imperialism of the Roman occupation and the smoldering resentment of the native tribes, And now Ruso must use all his skills to solve the killings before Tilla becomes the next target.

Who are the real barbarians here, the British or the Romans?  With acerbic humor, psychological insight and historical detail, Ruth Downie shows us that times and circumstances may vary but human nature remains much the same despite the passage of twenty centuries.

This is the first in what has become a series of novels about Ruso and Tilla's adventures.

Tabula Rasa by Ruth Downie

Tabula Rasa: A Gaius Ruso Mystery by Ruth Downie --- 332 pages

Ruth Downie is a British author who has written a series of mystery books set in Roman Britain in the time of the Emperor Hadrian. Her sleuths are a Roman Army medicus, or doctor, Gaius Petreius Ruso (a native of Gaul) and his British wife Tilla (formerly his slave).

In this, the sixth book in the series, Ruso has a contract as medicus for the Twentieth Legion, assigned to the construction of the Emperor Hadrian's Great Wall. It's the end of the short summer construction season, and the men of his century are eager to complete their assigned section and return to the relative comforts of their winter camp in Deva, far to the south.

Here in the north the local people still have bitter memories of their losses during the last British uprising against Roman rule. The situation has been exacerbated by the forced removal of many British families from their farms to make way for the Great Wall. Tilla, Ruso's wife, has discovered she has family in the area and is eager to reconnect with them, and Ruso agrees, for her sake, to try.

Then Ruso's clerk at the military hospital goes AWOL, and rumors begin to circulate that a Roman soldier has been murdered and buried in a section of the wall. When Ruso orders a search for his missing clerk, the Roman soldiers clash with Tilla's relations, and her tentative overtures seem doomed. Then the young son of the house is lured away by a soldier who says Tilla wants to see the boy. But no one knows who the soldier was, and the boy has disappeared.

Ruso fears that unless he can discover the fate of his missing clerk, and Tilla's missing relative, the situation will deteriorate into another bloody rebellion.

Downie's Gaius Ruso series has won lots of critical praise for its authentic period detail, vivid characters and intricate plots. One critic has compared her to the late, great Rosemary Sutcliff, author of a number of highly acclaimed novels set in Roman Britain. Fans of Lindsey Davis and Steven Saylor may also enjoy Downie's work.

Click HERE and HERE for two excellent detailed reviews of Tabula Rasa (Warning: Spoiler Alert)

Click HERE to read about Tabula Rasa on Downie's web page.