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Ruso and the Demented Doctor

Author: R. S. Downie
Publisher: Michael Joseph Ltd
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

2 reviews
Sales Rank: 80624

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 9.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.7

ISBN: 0718149440
EAN: 9780718149444
ASIN: 0718149440

Publication Date: March 6, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 2 - 3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.

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Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

The Roman Gumsandal Strikes Again May 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

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!

4 out of 5 stars

Good Fun for Fans of All Things Roman March 21, 2008
20 out of 30 found this review helpful

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.