Medicus

A Novel of the Roman Empire

By: Ruth Downie

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

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. His arrival in Deva (more commonly known today as Chester, England) does little to improve his mood, and after a 36-hour shift at the army hospital, he succumbs to a moment of weakness and 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 and can't cook, and drags trouble in her wake. Before he knows it, Ruso is caught in the middle of an investigation into the deaths of prostitutes working out of the local bar.

A few years earlier, after he rescued Emperor Trajan from an earthquake in Antioch, Ruso seemed headed for glory: now he's living among heathens in a vermin-infested bachelor pad and must summon all his forensic knowledge to find a killer who may be after him next.

Who are the true barbarians, the conquered or the conquerors? It's up to Ruso (certainly the most likeable sleuth to come out of the Roman Empire) to discover the truth. With a gift for comic timing and historic detail, Ruth Downie has conjured an ancient world as raucous and real as our own.

©2007 Ruth Downie (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"Downie's auspicious debut sparkles with beguiling characters and a vividly imagined evocation of a hazy frontier." (Publishers Weekly)
"Fans of Alexander McCall Smith will delight in this series debut set in Roman-occupied Britain and featuring wry army doctor Gaius Petreius Ruso." (Booklist)

Dr. Kildare…in togas!

A very good story with well done narration.
Excellent detective story set in Roman Britain.

Medicus

As always, Simon Vances is a joy to listen to, his narration flawless, each character distinctly drawn by the voices he gives to them. After a bit of a slow start, the book picks up its pace and provides a fascinating look into Britannia under Roman rule. Most enjoyable for anyone who loves historical fiction.

I loved it

The narration was enjoyable, the story was fun, my only complaint was that it wasn't longer. I recommend.

What Marjorie Said

Read the review by Marjorie from California written in 2008. She says everything I would say about this book, and says it extremely well. I give "Medicus" 5 stars instead of the 4 Marjorie awarded it, but I'm a bit of a sucker for stories about ancient Rome and for narrator Simon Vance.

Pass

Could you see Medicus being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Good lord no, it's the literary equivalent of valium.

Any additional comments?

Medicus takes place in ancient Rome and gives you a mild feeling of ambiance during the first couple of pages. If you want strong ambiance, that is historically accurate, consider reading “SPQR I: the king’s gambit”.

The fact of the story is, “nothing happens”. It’s pretty boring. The exceptional narration lends it enough ‘oomph’ for you to manage to finish listening to the book but honestly you could skip about 50% of this story and nothing would be missed.

This book was clearly written by a woman which isn’t, of course, a bad thing but shows obvious bias. At least one of the main characters doesn’t act her class at all and is a large let down.

Entertaining listen

I really enjoyed this book. Although I kept forgetting this was a story set in Britannia of the Roman Empire, I found the story entertaining and the mix of characters involved in the story to be a mostly likeable bunch. Not much roman medicine or even a lot of sleuthing but a good introduction to a Roman doctor and his cohorts.

Simon Vance does a terriffic job of telling this story with the mix of characters involved. I look forward to my next trip back to Britannia.

Really 4.5 stars

I have read the entire series and love them. The second one is a bit un-even, but the rest are great, so don't let it stop you. It's great to see the growth and development of the woman protagonist. I assume the author considers her a secondary character, but her experiences adopting to Roman 'civilization' and her frequent spot-on comments are often more enjoyable than the story itself.

Good story - poor narration/reader

The story is interesting for a lot of reasons - but I did not care for the reader/narrator. He was not able to differentiate between characters enough to keep my full attention. Not sure if I will get another in the series.

Good story, but no sense of time or place.

Enjoyed the mystery, but there were very few times I actually got the sense of ton place in Roman times. I stuck with it only to learn the outcome

A Roman Doctor In Britain

Enjoyable start to this mystery series set in Roman-occupied Britain. But I didn't feel immersed in the place and time (not like I do, for instance, in the historical novels of David Liss). Perhaps the next novels in the series will give me more of the feeling of being in the time period. This novel was interesting and I got caught up in the mystery. Simon Vance is a great narrator and doesn't disappoint here - I don't think I would have liked the book as well if I was reading it instead.