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Ruso and the Demented Doctor (Medicus Investigations 2) (Hardcover)

by R. S. Downie (Author) "Many miles south of Coria, Ruso gathered both reins into his left hand, reached down into the saddlebag and took out the pie he had..." (more)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £17.99
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 463 pages
  • Publisher: Michael Joseph (6 Mar 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0718149440
  • ISBN-13: 978-0718149444
  • Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 15.6 x 5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 331,163 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Ruso will be a hit, even if he wears socks with his sandals The Times


Product Description

N.B. R S Downie is published in the US as Ruth Downie and this book, RUSO AND THE DEMENTED DOCTOR, is published in the US as TERRA INCOGNITA. Army doctor Gaius Petreius Ruso is waiting for the gods to smile on him. But, on a posting to the hostile North of Britannia, he’s in for a long wait. Not least because the locals have a new hero who likes to strap antlers to his head and scare the Romans silly, while Ruso’s slave girl, Tilla, is stubbornly refusing to identify the culprit in a police line-up. But when Ruso is waylaid at the Fort of Coria, where a fellow doctor has confessed to a grisly murder, it’s a case of out of the cauldron and into the fire. With Tilla thrust outside the fort (and into the arms of a former lover), Ruso is landed not only with Doctor Thessalus’s patients but also the tricky task of getting him to retract the confession. Something smells fishy about this murder – and Coria is miles from the sea … Ruso faces a nightmarish investigation – trailed by the secret police, hunted by the Stag Man and betrayed by Tilla, is it any wonder he’s seeking solace in the rather-too-watery local beer? R. S. Downie’s Ruso is an anti-hero to delight in and murderers at the frontier of the Roman Empire will be quaking in their sandals at his return.
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Many miles south of Coria, Ruso gathered both reins into his left hand, reached down into the saddlebag and took out the pie he had saved from last night. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Roman Gumsandal Strikes Again, 15 May 2008
By S. J. Cuthbertson (West Sussex, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Hurrah! "Ruso and the Demented Doctor" is even better than "Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls", the first of R S Downie's army surgeon detective adventures set in Roman Britain. Ruso and Tilla, now his housekeeper, accompany a detachment of the Twentieth Legion from Deva (Chester) to Coria (Corbridge), a fort on the northern frontier near Tilla's tribal lands. Trouble naturally awaits: a Roman soldier has been murdered and the fort's doctor confesses (but he's as mad as a bucket of frogs). Meanwhile, a sinister native with antlers on his head is making mischief - and the Governor is about to pay a visit. So Ruso the Reluctant is roped in to do his least favourite job, with no help from Tilla who's been reunited with various relatives, and an ex-boyfriend - all of whom cause her to re-examine her loyalties.

The mystery is tantalisingly played out, but the elements that make this novel shine for me are the characters and the setting. Coria is a frontier fort with a shanty town attached. Here live the garrison 'wives' and girlfriends, a motley collection of merchants on the make, and natives who are beginning to see that the Empire might have something to offer them after all. The interactions between conquerors and conquered are handled in a way that makes them both true to their time and real to us across all the centuries that separate us. And Downie is skilled at showing the texture of her characters' lives and circumstances. Mainly they rub along together, Roman and native, but when those Britons who haven't come in from the cold get rebellious, everybody gets the shivers.

Ruso, wry, humane and recently divorced, who can't get far enough away from his troublesome family in Gaul and Tilla, torn between Ruso and her tribal loyalty, are shaping up to be a great double act in both head and heart. And each of them has an intriguing past that's being gradually revealed. I for one can't wait to meet Ruso's stepmother, Arria!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars As good as the first, 22 Jan 2009
By HJK (Gomersal UK) - See all my reviews
This second novel is as good as if not even better than the first.
Wonderful dry British humour and a good plot.
I can hardly wait for the 3rd novel which will be out later this year.
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23 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Fun for Fans of All Things Roman, 21 Mar 2008
By J. Chippindale (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
Beware, this book is also published under the title TERRA INCOGNITA.

After all the confusion with the first book, masquerading under two titles and a change of front cover, which fooled me into buying two copies of the same book, I was unsure whether to put any of my hard earned cash down on this one, but all things being equal the first book was an enjoyable read in the same vein as Lindsey Davis or Steven Saylor, so why cut off my nose to spite my face.

This is the second novel in the Medicus Series, featuring as its main character, Gaius Petreius Ruso, a divorced and down on his luck army doctor, who has made the rash decision of attempting tomake not only a career but a fortune in the far flung reaches the Roman Empire, namely Britain.

In the previous book Russo and the Disappearing Dancing Girls, Gaius manages to acquire himself a slave girl Tilla, not even Gaius is sure how he managed to do that, but the pair of them make a good team and the antics and scrapes that they get up to between them makes for enjoyable reading. If the books continue to the same standard of the first two there is no reason why this should not be an excellent series. Whether it ever achieves the cult status of the Lindsey Davis offerings remains to be seen.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

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