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)

Listen again and again...

I love this book. It is a delight to me...the perfect match of novel and narrator.

Engaging.

I know just enough of the Roman Empire to be pulled out of a story by anachronistic details. I was happy to realize at the end of this story that this didn’t happen. A purely enjoyable story with an excellent narrator who was able to differentiate voices without annoying affectation

117 A.D. Interesting time

This book was recommended by one of the people I follow on Audible. It sounded interesting, this is my first book by Ruth Downie but it will not be the last. I think I may be hooked on this series. Gaius Petrius Ruso is a divorced medical doctor in the Roman Army. He has just been transferred from Africa to Britannia. This story takes place in Deva ( now Chester, England) the Roman Army is busy building a fort and Ruso now works in the fort hospital (which needs a new roof). I found it interesting about the hospital bureaucracy, guess one can never escape it. The story is about women slaves or captives force to work in brothels. Shows nothing has changed in all these years this is still a big problem. I found Downie tried to provide accurate information about the time but little is available from the view of the Britain's but there is some information available about the Roman Army of that time. I know that cataract operations were tried back then so was not surprised by it being included in the story but without antibiotics, physicians lost a lot of patients that would survive today. Simon Vance is one of my favorite narrators and he did his usual great job.

Entertaining

I enjoyed listening to this book. When I think of ancient Rome I dont think of the people being like me in my daily life. Perhaps its a bit contrived but it was fun to see a Roman Medicus from a modern perspective. Kept my interest!

Pleasant, light, not terribly historical

This was a perfectly pleasant little historical mystery with engaging characters tuned to appeal to a progressive, 21st century audience.

Medicus is set in 1st century Roman Britain. Gaius Petrius Ruso is an army doctor stationed with the legions. He's got family troubles, money troubles, job troubles, and all he wants is some time to finish this book he's been writing, and maybe a promotion to Chief Medical Officer of the garrison hospital. The problem is, he's also burdened with a basic sense of decency that doesn't allow him to turn his back on an abused slave girl. And of course, when he ends up taking her in at his own expense, he's much too decent to rape her, beat her, or sell her, or do any of the other things that Romans actually did with their slaves.

While ostensibly a historical novel, Medicus is written, throughout, as if it were basically a contemporary story. The author deliberately takes historical situations but frames them the way their modern equivalents would see it, so Gaius, while practicing ancient Roman medicine, sounds very much like a modern medical doctor, and his career difficulties (wanting to be promoted to CMO, having an affable playboy colleague who scores all the women and the promotions, bureaucratic tussles with a penny-pinching hospital administrator, etc.) could come right out of a modern medical drama.

Where this runs aground against the supposedly historical setting is where the author tries to inject some consciousness about colonialism and sex trafficking. The Romans brutally occupied Britain and subjugated the native peoples, and while Gaius never really questions the economic underpinnings of the Roman Empire or the basic inferiority of the uncivilized natives, he's a "good Roman" who thinks it's not nice to mistreat them, and when he discovers just how miserable women who've been forced into prostitution to serve the needs of the local garrison are, he feels appropriately bad about it.

This is a frequent problem with historical novels - modern listeners won't sympathize with a protagonist who has the actual historical attitudes of his time and place. No doubt there were nice Romans who didn't beat or rape their slaves, but Gaius Ruso really doesn't act like a Roman military officer, he acts like a modern medical doctor who is a bit bemused to find himself living in Roman Britain.

Complaints about historicity aside, Medicus had lots of characters, some of whom will no doubt return in future books, and enough twists to keep things moving. There is a good amount of humor, and if you listen to it as a Roman-themed medical detective drama without any expectations of immersive verisimilitude, you will find it enjoyable.

Gaius and his "slave" Tilla are obviously going to be dancing the romantic tension dance for the next few books.

Simon Vance, as always, does an excellent job narrating.

Is there another book on the shelf

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Starts at good pace and then just stays there. Interesting backdrop. Good try

Has Medicus turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes

Do you think Medicus needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

NO please not. Once is enough. Too drab.

A great read, except . . .

I'm a huge fan of Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa series, so I was hesitant about branching out into another Roman-based series. This is a good story, Downie is a good writer, and Simon Vance is, well, Simon Vance. But because I had bought the book a while ago, I didn't remember that it took place in Britain and thus was very confused at the beginning about where I was and who this guy was. It all seemed very modern, and not Roman at all. As time went on, this problem sorted itself out, but I was still left with some puzzlement over why everyone in the book sounded British. Cockney. All kinds of British dialects that didn't come into being until many years after the time of the story. I guess it's not a huge thing, and I did enjoy the book, but it bothered me.

Fun mystery set in Roman Britain

I enjoyed this first in a series enough that I can see myself getting hooked. I should say that I've been an avid reader of history and archaeological findings about the period of Roman Britain for decades and I'm a lover of mysteries as well especially with a strong female lead as well as a male. It's hard to do a historically believable string female in most of history because women have been oppressed in one way or another. This book manages to walk that line with the female character being a native who is a slave and is oppressed in that role but thanks to the male lead not nearly as much as she could be. That's another thing I like about this book is it doesn't really gloss over the grim reality of female slaves often being sex slaves and in her afterword the author makes clear this is still a reality in many places in the world. But despite this not being glossed it doesn't distract from a good plot with moments of humor as well. I found the whodoneit part actually secondary to historical details and characters but it was a good wrap up to that part as well. The reader for this did a great job too. Can't wait to hear the second in The series

Decent, but very slow

I enjoy historical novels and this one is decent. The main drawback is the pace is really slow and drawn out, and I personally had trouble identifying with any of the characters. Narrator - Simon Vance is exceptional. I much preferred the Robert Harris Novels of Ancient Rome or the Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliffe.

Imagination runs wild

Any additional comments?

If you want historical fiction that adheres as closely as possible to 'fact,' this is probably not a book for you. But, considering how little we have upon which to build a factual rendition of a Roman settlement in the wilds of Brittania, the writer did an admirable job of creating something that 'feels' like it could have happened in that time and that place. Narrative is good, descriptive passages paint a clear picture without going on and on, dialogue is good, and most importantly, the people are very much alive. This book was a Deal of the Day. Many turn out to be duds, but this one was an exceptional exception.