Tabula Rasa

June 23, 2014
Downie’s sixth whodunit set in second-century Britannia (after 2013’s Semper Fidelis) immediately transports the reader to another time and place with an evocative description of work on Hadrian’s Wall in the midst of an unrelenting rainstorm (“It was easy to believe that the rain threw itself at you personally; hard not to feel persecuted and aggrieved when it found its way into your boots no matter how much grease you slathered on them”). When Candidus, Roman medico Gaius Ruso’s new clerk, goes missing, Ruso uses his many connections—he’s rumored to be personally acquainted with Emperor Hadrian, and is married to a local, Tilla, whose relatives view him, understandably, with distrust—to find out what happened to Candidus. While the mystery itself isn’t one of the author’s more gripping, the book plausibly depicts life in Roman Britain and tensions between the occupiers and the occupied. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management.

June 15, 2014
Against a backdrop of near-constant combat, a conscientious doctor tries to find two mysteriously missing persons. Britannia, A.D. 122. Hadrian's Wall is being constructed in order to isolate Roman colonists in the south from the barbarians of Caledonia to the north. Stationed at a fort, Medical Officer Gaius Petreius Ruso (Semper Fidelis, 2013, etc.) tends the legionnaires charged with the project. When Fabius, the local centurion, gets his leg trapped in the quarry, Ruso is forced to amputate to extricate him. This is just the beginning of a series of unfortunate events to befall Ruso and his Britannian wife, Tilla, who assists her husband. Among the residents she's visited to strengthen local relations with the empire is influential local Senecio, with whom she's struck up a friendship. Silvanus the centurion reports that Ruso's clerk, the Legionary Candidus, has moved from the next fort to the hospital in Parva in the west, but no one can find him. His disappearance just might have something to do with the recent falling out between Albanus, Ruso's friend and former clerk, and his girlfriend, Grata. Zealous soldiers on the hunt for Candidus virtually ransack local farms, including Senecio's, in their scorched-earth search. Not long after, Senecio's son Brana vanishes as well, and Tilla feels especially responsible because the family mistakenly thought she was tending the boy. Ruso feels bound to investigate but also to mend relations between the rash and intimidating centurions and the wary natives. And he wonders: Could these two disappearances possibly be connected? Downie writes with quiet authority and surprising depth, offering an engaging depiction of an obscure slice of history. The mystery is a nice addition but never the main attraction.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2014

In his sixth outing (after Semper Fidelis), intrepid medicus Gaius Ruso and his wife, Tilla, are back in northern Britannia, enduring the cold and rain of late autumn in the shadow of Hadrian's Wall. In fairly short order two people go missing--Candidus, Ruso's clerk, and a nine-year-old British boy. Tempers flare as it is reported the boy was abducted by one of the soldiers. Ruso and Tilla grow increasingly frustrated as they try to solve the two mysteries while keeping the fragile peace between the Romans and native Britons. VERDICT Like the other titles in the series, Downie's latest mixes an engaging story line, provocative characters, and a satisfying evocation of time and place. The minor and major threads merge seamlessly at the end, providing a satisfying conclusion for (almost) everyone. Series fans and Roman history buffs will enjoy this page-turner. [See Prepub Alert, 2/10/14.]--Pam O'Sullivan, Coll. at Brockport Lib., SUNY

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2014
The sixth Gaius Petreius Ruso novel finds the second-century-CE Roman medic and amateur sleuth working at the site of the great wall being built in Britannia under the auspices of the emperor Hadrian. Tensions between the native Britons and the Roman legions are running hot, with bigotry starting to trend toward violence. When a local boy says he knows of a body buried inside the wall, apparently put there while the person was still alive, speculation of murder and cover-up escalate. Also, Ruso's clerk has gone missingnot unusual in itself, given the fellow's lackadaisical work ethicbut a second disappearance, this one involving a local family with whom Tilla, Ruso's native-born wife, has become friendly, makes Ruso wonder if something nefarious is going on. Written in simple, unadorned prose (no awkward attempts to ape period style), the book is a pleasure to read. The Ruso series might not be as well known as, say, Lindsey Davis' longer-running Marcus Didius Falsco series, but it's just as entertaining.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2014

In this latest in the terrific New York Times best-selling series starring Roman medicus Gaius Petreius Ruso, Ruso and wife Tilla, a native of Roman-occupied Britain, are tending to those building Hadrian's Great Wall when Ruso's new clerk vanishes.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.