Caveat Emptor: A Novel of the Roman Empire [Hardcover]

Ruth Downie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 21, 2010

In her fourth novel, Ruth Downie brings to life the corruption and treachery of Roman-occupied Britain, as it closes in on her winsome leading man, Gaius Petreius Ruso.

Ruso and Tilla, now newlyweds, have moved back to Britannia, where Ruso's old friend and colleague Valens has promised to help him find work. But it isn't the kind of work he'd had in mind-Ruso is tasked with hunting down a missing tax man named Julius Asper.

Of course, there's also something else missing: money. And the council of the town of Verulamium is bickering over what's become of it. Compelled to delve deeper by a threat from his old sparring partner, Metellus, Ruso discovers that the good townsfolk may not be as loyal to Rome as they like to appear.

While Tilla tries to comfort Asper's wife, an anonymous well-wisher is busy warning the couple to get away from the case before they get hurt. Despite our hero's best efforts to get himself fired as investigator, he and his bride find themselves trapped at the heart of an increasingly treacherous conspiracy involving theft, forgery, buried treasure, and the legacy of Boudica, the Rebel Queen.

Ruth Downie the author of the New York Times bestselling Medicus, Terra Incognita, and most recently Persona Non Grata. A part-time librarian, she is married with two sons and lives in Milton Keynes, England.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. When tax collector Julius Asper goes missing, physician Gaius Petreius Ruso, who'd rather get medical work, reluctantly investigates in Downie's superb fourth historical set in second-century Roman Britain (after Persona Non Grata). Since Asper's brother and assistant, Julius Bericus, has also disappeared, some suspect the two men have run off with the emperor's tax money, but Ruso considers it more likely that robbers attacked the brothers on the road from the provincial town of Veralamium to Londinium. When the body of a man who fits Asper's description turns up in a Londinium alley, Ruso has a murder case on his hands, and must journey to Veralamium for answers. Downie excels in bringing the ancient world to life as well as making the attitudes and customs of its inhabitants accessible to a modern audience. She also succeeds at leavening the whodunit plot with flashes of humor, many stemming from her hero's British wife, Tilla. (Jan.)
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Review

"The characters are vividly drawn."—Historical Novel Society

"Downie remains a peerless storyteller and a master entertainer. BBC’s Masterpiece should take a long look at this series. It’s a winner."—Kirkus Reviews

"Supurb … Downie excels in bringing the ancient world to life as well as making the attitudes and customs of its inhabitants accessible to a modern audience."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (December 21, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596916087
• ISBN-13: 978-1596916081
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #428,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ruth (RS) Downie graduated from university with an English degree and a plan to get married and live happily ever after. She is still working on it. In the meantime she is also the New York Times bestselling author of a mystery series featuring Roman doctor Gaius Petreius Ruso.

The four books currently available are:

Medicus (published as 'Medicus/Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls' in the UK and Australia)

Terra Incognita ('Ruso and the Demented Doctor')

Persona non Grata ('Ruso and the Root of All Evils')

Caveat Emptor ('Ruso and the River of Darkness')

Ruth is not the RS Downie who writes real medical textbooks. Absolutely none of the medical advice in the Ruso books should be followed. Roman and Greek doctors were very wise about many things but they were also known to prescribe donkey dung and boiled cockroaches.

Find out more at www.ruthdownie.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Town without pity, December 29, 2010

By 

Blue in Washington "Barry Ballow" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Caveat Emptor: A Novel of the Roman Empire (Hardcover)

Ruth Downie takes her "Medicus" series to a new level of complexity and intrigue with "Caveat Emptor". This fourth book in the highly entertaining series set in Roman-ruled Britain in the Second Century AD has protagonist Gaius Petreius Ruso and his now-wife Tilla back in Londinium after a long visit to his family home in southern Gaul. Ruso, no longer an army medic, is looking for work and reluctantly accepts an assignment from the Procurator of the province to investigate the disappearance of a tax collector and a substantial amount of tax revenue from the nearby town of Verulamium (modern St. Albans). With Tilla and the missing tax collector's wife and child in tow, Ruso moves his investigation to Verulamium, to all appearances a very law-abiding and largely Romanized settlement where the local Britons talk with Babbit-like pride about their town and province. The town fathers are not happy about the possibility of criminal scandal that has come with Ruso the Investigator, and as the bodies of the tax collector and his brother turn up, civic hostility becomes increasingly dangerous for Ruso and his family and colleagues.

Author Downie has crafted a very clever plot that is slowly revealed through Ruso's investigation in classic police procedural fashion albeit in the historic context in which the mystery is set. The conclusion is never predictable and is revealed only in the last few pages of the book.

While the plot is clever and skillfully spun out, what I liked even more about "Caveat Emptor" was the growing complexity of the characters. The relationship between Ruso and his Briton wife Tilla is extremely complicated. To be sure, there are masculine/feminine differences at work, but this is also a pairing of two extremely different people, coming from two very different cultures (cosmopolitan vs. tribal). The two are shown to be strongly committed to each other, but they are rarely in agreement about anything--their lives together, relationships with others, how to investigate a crime, etc. That personal tension is consistently written into the entire run of the story and, for the most part, strengthens it and brings a sense of historic reality to the tale.

I also thought that Downie provided a good balance of mystery story vs. historic detail in "Caveat Emptor". The plot had a modern feel to it, with its emphasis on human relationships, greed, petty power struggles, and bureaucratic bad behavior. But there is enough historic material here--living conditions, Roman medicine, transportation, burial rites, tribal relationships, etc.--to make the story original and entertaining for the reader who chooses this genre for those qualities.

A very fine book in a good series that gets more interesting with each successive episode. Recommended.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hail, Ruso!, January 19, 2011

By 

annie "earthboundmisfit" (LEWISTOWN, PA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Caveat Emptor: A Novel of the Roman Empire (Hardcover)

If you like your Romans with a sense of humor, a gift for understatement, and an ability to go with the flow, you'll love Ruso. He and his assorted friends, Romans and countrymen are a welcome addition to the ofttimes strictly by-the-book cast of characters to be found in other series of the Roman empire. Downie's characters and plots continue to expand and grow with each wonderful addition to the series.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ruso and Tilla rock, January 19, 2011

By 

Carla S. Kelly (Wellington, Utah) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Caveat Emptor: A Novel of the Roman Empire (Kindle Edition)

I'm a total sucker for Roman mysteries. Medicus came my way a few years ago through a Deseret Industries store in Price, Utah. I wanted something to read (pre-Kindle days), and $1 seemed like a bargain for a newish book. I loved it, and I've been a Ruth Downie follower ever since. Caveat Emptor was a fine read. The plot got a bit convoluted, as Downie's tend to, but I'm OK with that, especially since the Ruso and Tilla relationship grows more tender. I re-read the final two chapters several times, because they are textbook examples of understatement and tenderness from a talented writer. I'm ready for another book, because we have to find out where in the world of Roman Britain the fates will take this self-deprecating, yet still-dynamic duo.