Featured image : British author Ruth Downie
A turn of fortune brought them to the capital of the world, Rome. Tilla resisted leaving Britannia, but off they went. She found Rome even more awful than she expected and her expectations were very bad. For his part, once there, Ruso couldn’t quite remember why it seemed a good idea to go to Rome. Thus begins the adventure of Ruso, medical officer late of the twentieth Legion, and his British wife Tilla, and their adopted daughter Mara.
The disorder, noise, smells, expense, rudeness, violence, are just some of vita Romana. Little has changed since then, to be sure. The patron who sponsored their migration, luring Ruso away from his army sinecure, where he had long since worn out his welcome, is likewise not sure now that it was a good idea. There seems to be nothing for Ruso to do as Rome is full of doctors, snake-oil salesmen and, for that matter, saleswomen and faith healers . However when doctor Kleitos is called away to the country, Ruso is nominated by his patron as the locum. Excellent, thinks Ruso, because the quarters will get them out of the overpriced hovel they are renting and the surgery will generate some much needed lucre.
Odd though that Doctor Kleitos seems to have taken everything not bolted down, tables, chairs, crockery, and all his medical records for a temporary leave. Even odder that a dead body is delivered to the front door in a barrel. This does thicken the plot.
Ruso is wonderfully vague and easily distracted, painfully well-meaning and imperceptive, technically adapt at medicine and foolishly brave that he charms the reader. Tilla is so determined, impetuous, and resourceful, she sings Mara to sleep with British songs of triumph, while Ruso worries about the money he does not have, and puzzles over the fool’s errands his patron dishes up.
What’s going on?… then there is that dead body….. it has nothing to do with them but it has put a curse on the medical practice, gumming up the works. Ruso has his moments. When an accident causes injuries on a building site, there he is, the compliant, competent Legion doctor performing triage, applying tourniquets, snapping dislocated bones back into place while the dust is still flying.
Tilla may be small and foreign but she has learned to survive, as some heavies come to extort money, discover to their regret. There’s a mountain of historical research in the book. It must be hard to keep the momentum, and to reiterate the freshness and vitality of our two protagonists that Ruth Downie weaves into the narrative that explores Ruso and Tilly’s excitement upon arriving in Rome. This enthusiasm is dulled by their discovery that the grand facades of polished marble mask an underworld of corrupt landlords and vermin-infested tenements.
Distracted by the body in the barrel on the doorstep and the warning ”Be careful, who you trust’” Ruso also helps a friend win the hand of a rich young heiress, but in doing that causes him to question both his competence and his integrity. With his reputation under threat, he and Tilla must protect their small family from doctor Kleitos’s debt collectors and find allies in their new environment while they track down the vanished doctor and find out the truth about the heiress’s dead father—Ruso’s patron……and the unfortunate man in the barrel.
This book is my first read of the seven instalments of the delightful Medicus series. While moving Ruso to Rome is a distraction from Downie’s usual Britain setting, a few scenes give historical cameos to Roman landmarks. Downie’s plotting is eminently engaging as she weaves the threads of a murder mystery into the very character-driven story of Ruso and Tilla.
While marital strife under the pressures of a new home and a baby in the household could prove tedious, these two characters and their relationship is charmingly portrayed, inserting every domestic scene as part of the whole story. The tension between Tilla’s rebellious nature and the ideal of a “good Roman wife”, plus the tension between Ruso’s outer gruffness and inner integrity make this Medicus instalment much more than a mystery novel and makes it a bloody good read.
Ruth Downie is an English author of nine mysteries featuring Roman Army medic Gaius Petreius Ruso and his British partner Tilla. Her novel VITA BREVIS was first published in 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
